Former Tshwane Junior Open champion Otto van Buynder birdied the final hole at Bloemfontein Golf Club to edge one shot clear of four challengers at the 36-hole mark of the Nomads North and South National Order of Merit in Bloemfontein on Monday.
 

The Blue Valley junior lagged one off the pace from local favourite Wilco Nienaber after opening with a three-under-par 69. He countered a double bogey at seven with four birdies on the back nine for a 72 to replace the reigning Curro SA Juniors International champion in pole position.
 

Niebaber – chasing his fourth victory of the season after additional victories in the season-opening Nomads National Order of Merit Inland at Benoni Country Club in January and the Northern Cape Open in March – made a solid start with five birdies and a sole bogey at 10.
 

The Grey College struggled to keep a grip on the lead after bogeys at seven, 12 and 15, though, and a double-bogey at 17 was a further setback, but he rallied with a birdie finish to stay in touch with Van Buynder.
 

Nienaber shares second with Kian Rose from Central Gauteng, Werner Deyzel from Gauteng North and Southern Cape’s Bradley de Beer.  De Beer made his debut for South African in the GolfRSA Junior Team that battled Scotland and the South African Golf Development Board in March. The Fancourt golfer was well off the pace after a first round 72, but he reeled in a pair of eagles to get within striking distance of the lead.

Successive rounds of 72 helped Lisanthan Moodley from KwaZulu-Natal to joint sixth at even-par 144 with Yurav Premlall from Ekurhuleni, who posted rounds of 70 and 74.

“We had stunning conditions and the wind never really got more than half-a-club,” said tournament director David Younge. “We will set the course up a little longer for the final round, but for the first two rounds the set up was short. We toughened up the course with the pin positions tucked into all the corners and that put a premium on the second shots and the up-and-down games. The leaderboard is pretty bunched up heading into the final round, suggesting another tight finish on Tuesday.”

Second Round Leaderboard:

141 Otto van Buynder 69 72

142 Werner Deyzel 72 70; Bradley de Beer 72 70; Kian Rose 71 71; Wilco Nienaber 68 74

144 Lisanthan Moodley 72 72; Yurav Premlall 70 74

145 Christiaan Burke 75 70; Jordan Duminy 73 72

146 NJ Botha 73 73; Tiaan van der Bank 73 73

147 Carlo Heunis 76 71; Alex van Wyk 75 72

148 Martin Vorster 73 75; Liam Cloete 73 75

149 Keanu Pestana 76 73; Samual Mckenzie 74 75; Luhan Bester 73 76; Cole Stevens 73 76

150 Carl Mwale 77 73; Liam van Deventer 76 74; Marcus Taylor 76 74; Cade Cryer 76 74; Jacques du Preez 73 77

151 Alessio Graziani 79 72; Leif Sinclair 74 77

152 Barend Botha 78 74; Ben van Wyk 78 74; Casey Jarvis 76 76; Teagan Miller USA 76 76; Dylan Underwood 73 79; Arno Esterhuysen 73 79; Ryan van Velzen 72 80

153 Shaun Jones 78 75; John Louis Liebenberg 76 77

154 Marnus Du Toit 79 75; Angus Klintworth 78 76; Hilmi Mallick 77 77; Brendan Porter 77 77; Andre van Dyk 77 77; Murad Hoosen 76 78; Chandler Shaw 75 79; Llewellyn Booysen 74 80

155 Ruhan Oosthuizen 78 77; Nikhil Gopal 78 77; Darian Fortune 74 81

156 James Murray 78 78

157 Calvin Maia 81 76

158 Zamokuhle Nxasana 81 77

159 Damian Osner 80 79; Saul Moss 78 81

160 Nash de Klerk 80 80; Kifentse Nukeri 76 84

161 Miles Taylor 79 82

162 AJ Bezuidenhout 86 76; Alexander van der Merwe 84 78; JJ Pretorius 79 83

163 Gary Kemp 87 76

165 C.J van Wyk 87 78; Joshua Edwards 83 82; Christopher Long 79 86

167 Lyle Roche Pedro 88 79

170 Tyron Taylor 87 83

172 Thanassi Vrysoulis 85 87

174 Daniel Liebenberg 80 94

186 Willem Gresse (Jnr) 93 93

WD Devon Whitaker WD

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of GolfRSA, a SAGA and WGSA Not-For-Profit company.