England’s Ross Fisher and Belgium’s Thomas Detry were the big movers halfway through the second day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge (NGC) on Friday.
Fisher‚ a former runner-up in this event‚ was seven under for the day by the time he reached the 13th tee and had played himself within three shots of overnight leader Sergio Garcia.
Fisher kick-started his round with an eagle on the par-five second and recorded birdies on the fourth‚ seventh‚ ninth‚ 11th and 13th.
Starting on the 10th Detry scorched to an outbound 30 and carded another birdie three holes later.
His first seven holes yielded six birdies which helped him surge up the leaderboard which was still anchored by Spain’s Garcia.
Garcia‚ the overnight leader by four‚ extended his advantage with birdies on the first two holes but he dropped a shot on the par four fifth. He moved to 11-under when he birdied the ninth.
China’s Haotong Li put his underwhelming opening round behind him by surging into contention with seven birdies by the time he got to the 15th.
He however dropped a shot on that hole to leave him at six-under‚ five off the pace.
He shared that score with Louis Oosthuizen‚ who made a blistering start only to suffer a devastating blow on the eighth. He was three under for the round after four holes but a double bogey on the eighth slammed on the brakes.
Also on six-under were former champion Lee Westwood‚ and fellow Englishman Matt Wallace.
