ANTALYA – South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber surged into second place on the Turkish Airlines Open leaderboard after an excellent second-round 65 six-under par, bringing his total to an impressive nine-under, at the Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort on Friday.
Starting the day on three-under, the big-hitting Nienaber struck six birdies, including on the notorious 10th and also the 18th holes, and bogeyed just one to slot in just two shots off leader Frenchman Martin Couvra (-11), who carded a second round 66.
“I am proud of the day. I thought it was going to be pretty tricky,” Nienaber told Independent Media.
“On the mental side of things, I had to work through a few things going around the fourth, fifth and sixth hole, and managed to do that, so very proud.”
The two-times NTT DATA Pro-Am winner certainly feels he can be in contention as the competition heads into the business end over the weekend.
“The feet are tired now,” Nienaber joked. “Every week if you putting well, you’ll be pretty close.
“Especially the way I play. If I have a good putting week, I’ll be close to winning. If I can do more of the same it will be great.”
Meanwhile, first-round joint-leader Robin Williams slipped into joint fourth position, carding a 70, to add a -1 to his overnight 6-under, to stay in contention at 7-under.
Former Proteas Men’s cricket bowler Vernon Philander often spoke about the investment session though.
It was a period in the game where Philander would settle into a probing line and length to set up a batter for a full-on attack later on.
When Williams was asked whether it was his “investment session” ahead of the weekend’s action, Williams responded “You know what, I actually like that term!”
“I didn’t play nearly as well as I played yesterday, struggled a bit tee to green, but I didn’t really put myself in trouble, so I could kind of keep the pars together.
“I knew today, obviously not playing as well, just try to keep it together. I wasn’t trying to kind of make big numbers and blow myself out of it.
“There’s some tricky flags, me and my dad we played a little bit conservative, but that’s kind of what you need to do on Thursday, Friday, and then hopefully we can go and attack for the weekend.”
SA Open champion Dylan Naidoo enjoyed a better day, closing on 3-under, along with Dylan Fritelli (-2).
Fellow South African Jayden Schaper also enjoyed a good day out, shooting a 67, for a four-under par and overall, two-under.
* Zaahier Adams is attending the Turkish Airlines Open at the Regnum Carya Golf Club in Antalya, courtesy of Turkish Airlines.
