A sizzling 7-under 65 has put Warren Abery one shot ahead of overnight leader Tyrone Mordt after the second round of the Nedbank Affinity Cup at Sun City.
Mordt, who shared the first round with Jake Roos after opening with a 67 at the Lost City course at South Africa's most celebrated resort, carded a 69 on Wednesday to drop an a shot behind Abery's at 9-under total, but edged one shot clear Roos, who shot a 71 to take sole possession of third place heading into Thursday's final round.
On Tuesday Abery had opened with a 70 and explaining his five-shot improvement in the second round, he said: "Yesterday my timing was off. I was just rushing it, but this morning I took it slower and got my rhythm back - and missed only two fairways and hardly any greens."
"I've always loved Lost City, I shot my lowest score on tour here, so I think it's there for me to make low scores again," he said.
A six-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, Abery started on the back stretch and stormed through his first nine holes in 31 strokes to turn at seven-under-par, two strokes clear of the field.
A bogey straight after the turn proved to be the only blemish of his round, and the 38-year-old went on to make birdie at the fourth, sixth and seventh before signing for his 65.
"We've got some big tournaments coming, and I've got European Tour School coming up in Spain," he said. "So mMy goal for this week was just to get my rhythm and ball-striking on form."
Defending champion Roos began the day in a share of the lead, but could only add a second-round 71 to his tally on a low scoring day to drop back into third place.
For Mordt, the other first round leader, Wednesday was a day of toil and trouble - except on the greens.
"The one thing that kept me up there today was my putting," he said. "I just made the putts I needed to and kept the momentum going. Short game and putting helps a lot - there was a stretch where I wasn't hitting it that well, but I made the pars I needed to stay in the race."
TOP 10 LEADERBOARD
135 - Warren Abery 70 65
136 - Tyrone Mordt 67 69
138 - Jake Roos 67 71
139 - Martin Maritz 71 68, Prinavin Nelson 70 69, Vaughn Groenewald 71 68
140 - Ockie Strydom 70
141 - Allan Versfeld 74 67, Des Terblanche 68 73, Doug McGuigan 72 69, Jaco Ahlers 70 71, Ulrich van den Berg 73 68, Grant Veenstra 68 73
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