Joint overnight leader Eugenio Chacarra battled his way to the sole lead in the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Friday, pushing his tally to 15 under par for a two-shot advantage.
Jayden Schaper fired 64 to be second on 13 under with Branden Grace and John Parry on 12 under.
Michael Hollick, who carded 63, Oliver Bekker and JC Ritchie were one shot further back. Danie van Tonder and Christiaan Burke, who had shared the first-round lead with Chacarra, were on 10 under.
The 25-year-old Spaniard teed off late in the morning, by which time Schaper had stepped off the course with the early lead.
But Chacarra hit back straight away, carding an eagle three on the first hole, and then knocking off three birdies to turn in 32.
Two bogeys on 10 and 11 knocked him back to second spot, but a birdie two on the 12th brought him level before adding three more birdies to finish the day on 66 and 15.
Chacarra, who achieved his sole DP Tour Victory at the India Open earlier this year, fought hard in tough conditions.
“It was tough in the afternoon today. I feel the wind was tricky … I didn’t do my best on the back nine, but it was just a wind mistake and a couple of bad swings.
“But overall it was a good day … it’s still Friday so there’s a lot of golf to play,” said Chacarra, who fist-punched to punctuate his pleasure after sinking a 10-foot putt for par on the 14th hole.
Schaper, who had struggled on the opening nine on Thursday, found his groove quickly and delivered a flawless round.
“[I struggled] with the yardages and that. Obviously we’re at altitude now and we spend most of our tournaments playing at the coast, so there’s a lot less spinning the ball up here, so kind of just falling a little bit out of the sky and numbers were a bit short in a few few of the shots.
“So just kind of got the adjustments in that right and just started to hit some flags.”
Van Tonder, who was satisfied with his round of 69 to stay in the hunt, battled with the putter.
“The greens were a bit harder to read today. I think they double cut them or something. It seemed like the more the break I took, the more they turned. I looked a little blind out there, but it wasn’t too bad.”
The leaders will tee off early on Saturday morning as organisers try to negotiate storms forecast for the afternoon.
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