Jaco Van Zyl made a stunning start to the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge as he aims to become the first South African winner at Sun City in eight years.
The 13-time Sunshine Tour winner came into the second round in a share of the lead with Henrik Stenson but soon hit the front on his own as he followed a birdie on the first with an eagle on the second to get to nine under after three holes.
Stenson made an impressive birdie-birdie start himself but that was not enough to keep pace with Van Zyl, who is searching for a first European Tour win after finishing second recently at the Turkish Airlines Open.
Should he win this week he would become the first South African to lift the trophy at Gary Player Country Club since Trevor Immelman in 2007.
Defending champion Danny Willett was the other man in the final group but he endured a nightmare start, finding the water on the second and the trees on the third to go bogey-double-bogey and drop to two under.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Marc Leishman were five behind the leader at four under as they cooled down after impressive starts.
Aphibarnrat put his approach to the first inside two feet and then took advantage of the gettable second to make it a birdie-birdie start. Another birdie at the third followed to move the Thai to five under alongside Leishman who rolled in a 25-footer on the second.
But Aphibarnrat then bogeyed the fifth with Leishman doing the same at the fourth as the leading duo began to open up a gap.
Louis Oosthuizen and Bernd Wiesberger were both one under for the day through six at three under alongside Robert Streb, Branden Grace and Ross Fisher.
The second was giving up shots on Friday and Scott Piercy picked up an eagle as he chipped in after seeing his ball settle behind an advertising board which was removed so he could play his shot.
Thongchai Jaidee had also had an eagle on the second but his was more conventional as he put a sensational approach to tap-in range to sit in the group at two under with Emiliano Grillo, Chris Wood and Willett.
