Lusaka – Alex Haindl carded an unblemished eight-under-par 64 in the second round of the Zanaco Zambia Masters at Lusaka Golf Club to total nine-under for the tournament and take a one-shot lead into the weekend.

He was among the lucky players who teed off in the afternoon when the gusting wind had died down a little, and he took full advantage of the conditions in style on Friday. Teeing off on the 10th, Haindl wasted no time in getting down to business with a birdie on the first hole that was followed by a par. Another birdie on the 12th, his third, was followed by five straight pars and another birdie to go three-under on the front nine.

“I played nicely today and I played nicely yesterday too,” he said.

“I just had a few bad lies yesterday and kept going birdie, bogey, birdie and so on. I just kept the bogeys off the card today and I managed to stay away from the bunkers which are really challenging, but other than that, I just did the same things I did yesterday.”

Haindl didn’t relent on the homeward nine as he made another birdie to keep things tight. The eagle he made on the next hole was probably what he needed to continue his onslaught because despite the four consecutive pars he made from the 12th through to the 15th, he made further gains when he birdied his 16th and 17th holes before making par on the last.

He acknowledged that playing in a three ball – with JJ Senekal who carded an impressive nine-under on Friday, and Tyrone Ferreira didn’t play bad either despite the score saying the opposite – where all three players were doing great was another form of motivation as also another motivator.

“It was definitely nice,” he said of the group in which he played.

“The three of us get along very well and JJ and kept going at each other and we kept pulling each other along. So, it was a really nice day.”

Tied for the second spot a single shot behind Haindl is the duo of Stephen Ferreira and Senekal.

Ferreira carded a second successive 68 to total eight-under. But unlike Haindl who teed off in the afternoon, Ferreira had to endure the wrath of the strong wind that made it even tougher to navigate around this tree-lined layout in Lusaka.

Leaderboard:

135 - Alex Haindl 71 64

136 - Stephen Ferreira 68 68, JJ Senekal 73 63

137 - Jaco Ahlers 69 68

139 - Daniel van Tonder 67 72, Lyle Rowe 69 70, Christiaan Basson 70 69, Merrick Bremner 69 70

140 - Herman Loubser 70 70, Rhys Enoch 72 68, Wynand Dingle 66 74