Fisher leads Tshwane Open by five shots
THE drizzle that enveloped the Els Club at Copperleaf for most of yesterday must have made Ross Fisher feel right at home.
The Englishman, despite dropping two shots early on, pushed his overall score to 18under par to stretch his Tshwane Open lead to an imposing five strokes.
His nearest rival is Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland on 13-under.
English veteran Simon Dyson and Spain’s Carlos del Moral are 12-under par while seven players are 11-under, including the top-placed South Africans, Merrick Bremner, Hennie Otto, Darren Fichardt, Danie van Tonder and Trevor Fisher Jnr.
This event, co-sanctioned by the European and Sunshine tours, is Fisher’s to lose, although he plans to be aggressive today, insisting that “no lead is big enough”.
“I want to go out there and put some heat on the other guys, thinking they’re going to have to shoot something silly low to beat me,” said Fisher, seeking his first European Tour victory since the 2010 Irish Open.
“It’ll be nice to win and win in a nice fashion because I feel like [my] game is good enough to win and to win by a good number of strokes,” said the 33-year-old.
Fisher, with a highest world ranking of 17, was a member of the victorious 2010 European Ryder Cup team.
He is classy and yesterday he showed that.
Starting the day on 13-under Fisher bogeyed the open- ing hole, but bounced back with birdies on the par-four second and par-three third.
Then he dropped on the par-three fifth and hit back with two consecutive birdie threes. Three more birdies saw him sign for a 67, an excellent follow-up to his previous rounds of 66 and 65.
The conditions, he admitted, were difficult, but added: “Us Brits are more used to this weather.”
Hoey, who produced a stunning seven straight birdies for a back nine score of 29 on Friday, conceded he was familiar with the conditions.
“Obviously [we’re] used to having an umbrella over your head a lot of the time … you get used to it. But this is warmer rain. At altitude it’s different, but it feels good.”
Morten Orum Madsen of Denmark, the SA Open champion who started the day one stroke behind Fisher, yesterday struggled on this Ernie Els-designed course, at 7 281m the longest in European Tour history.
He signed for a three-overpar 75, nine shots behind.