Adilson da Silva is three shots clear in the lead at the Africa Open in Cape Town, as the Australian contingent struggled to stay in touch. Da Silva went nine under for his 28 holes played on Friday – as he finished off his opening round with a 10-under 62 before going four under in the second round to hold the outright lead in pursuit of a maiden European Tour victory. His first round fell one stroke short of levelling Louis Oosthuizen&aposs event-best of 11 under, however he did set the record of the lowest opening round at the Africa Open by two strokes. Da Silva can also become the first wire-to-wire winner of the event, should he hold his lead going into Sunday. Sitting second was overnight leader Jaco van Zyl, with the South African shooting a five-under 67 to be nearest to the leading Brazilian. Four straight birdies on van Zyl&aposs back nine ensured he remained in the hunt to keep up the unbeaten streak of wins to locals in the sixth edition of the tournament. Englishman John Parry climbed the leaderboard late in the day at East London Golf Course, moving to 10-under overall as he maintained his position of outright third. Two strokes back are South Africans Darren Fichardt and Oliver Bekker, with the local pair shooting rounds of five-under 67. France&aposs Gregory Bourdy and Portugal&aposs Ricardo Santos are level on seven under, with Ireland&aposs David Higins, Chile&aposs Mark Tullo and the Netherlands&apos Tjaart van der Waalt tied for eighth on six under. For the Australians, Brett Rumford was best placed on three-under overall after a second round of two-under 70. He was the only Aussie to make the weekend, with Scott Arnold (+1) and Daniel Gaunt (+4) missing the even-par cut.
Author: Omnisport