Zander grabs the NGC lead

Sun City – Louis Oosthuizen’s lead was slipping through his fingers like powder after backto-back bogies on the 14th and 15th holes in the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge yesterday, but South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer managed to get a grip back on his game and finish the day just two shots behind compatriot Zander Lombard (above), who produced a phenomenal round of 65 to soar to the top of the leaderboard on 11-under-par.

Oosthuizen, who had been majestic in shooting 63 in the first round while still suffering the after-effects of kidney stones, came in birdie-par-par to follow up with a level-par 72 yesterday. “It was just fatigue, especially on the last seven holes or so. I didn’t play great, I struggled to get my irons close enough and didn’t really have good opportunities for birdies. It was a day for just getting around the course, it was always going to be tough following a 63. I could feel I wasn’t on song and I just tried not to get down on myself. So I was just focused on getting through the round and not playing myself out of contention,” said Oosthuizen,

“The course was really tough today, you could throw the wind chart away, it was all over the place and you were guessing all day. That made it so difficult and that’s why other than Zander there were no other really low rounds.”

The day started badly for Lombard as, playing with Sun City legends Ernie Els and Lee Westwood, he bogeyed the parfour first hole to slip six shots behind Oosthuizen. Birdies on the second, fifth and eighth holes lifted him up the leaderboard, but he was still not really challenging Oosthuizen’s place at the top.

That all changed after the turn though as Lombard eagled the 10th and picked up another stroke on the intimidating parfour 11th; a par on the par-five 14th after finding the dreaded love-grass was important for maintaining momentum and he promptly birdied the 15th and 16th holes for a brilliant day’s work.