Paarl, September 23, The familiar name of Jaco van Zyl is once more perched atop the leaderboard after the morning session of the first round at the SAA Pro-Am Invitational at Paarl Golf Club.

Van Zyl fired in seven birdies and a lone bogey to complete a fine six-under par 66 to lead by one shot over Trevor Fisher Jnr who closed with a flawless 67.

Eight players including Jean Hugo, last week’s champion at the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf event in Stellenbosch, lie in a group just one shot further adrift, with Paarl local Jacques Blaauw back at two-under par.

Yesterday’s winner of the Pro-Am, Merrick Bremner who is also celebrating his 100th start on the Sunshine Tour, made another solid start with a three-under par 69.

Van Zyl was more than satisfied with his round after only finding out yesterday that his driver head had cracked. Luckily he was able to borrow another one from fellow professional Andrew Curlewis and the rest is history.

Starting his round on the 10th tee, van Zyl opened his campaign with a birdie before adding another at the 12th. His only bogey of the round happened just two holes later at the short par-three 14th, where earlier Ross Wellington holed out from the tee with a pitching wedge to record the seventh hole-in-one this season.

Van Zyl then got that shot back with another birdie on the closing par-five. Four birdies at regular intervals followed on his second nine to cap off a successful first day for him. And with the wind picking up this afternoon, he may just stay in the driving seat coming into tomorrow morning.

Golf Scores (RSA unless specified):

-6 - Jaco van Zyl

-5 - Trevor Fisher Jnr

-4 - Ryan Cairns (ZIM), Keenan Davidse, Alex Haindl, Anton Haig, Thabang Simon, Jean Hugo, Adilson da Silva (BRA), Jaco Ahlers

-3 - Justin Walters, Merrick Bremner

-2 - Jacques Blaauw, Divan van den Heever, Ryan Thompson

-1 - Roberto Lupini, Gerhard Trytsman, Jack Kutumane, Andrew Curlewis, Ross Wellington, Josh Cunliffe, Mark Murless, John Bele

Par - Francois van Vuuren, Colin Nel, Darren Blair, Alain Norris, Neil Cheetham (ENG), Brett Liddle, Titch Moore, PH McIntyre, Ulrich van den Berg, Callie Swart

+1 - Dean Burmester, Juan Langeveld, Jake Redman, Don Black, Matthew Carvell, Johan Milho, Mohamed Tayob

+2 - Dylan Docherty, Teboho Sefatsa, Garry Hill, Garth Mulroy, Danie van Niekerk (Jnr), Ryan Stopford, Ian Hutchings

+3 - Gary Baynham, Louis Calitz, Dion Fourie, Trevor Mahoney

+4 - Attie Schwartzel, Heinrich Bruiners, Ivan van Onselen, Ben Fouchee, Albert Pistorius, David le Roux

+5 - Chris Corry (ENG)

+6 - Justin Blanckenberg, Ali Tsai (TPE)

+7 - Darren Tibshraeny, Chris Swanepoel

+9 - Greg McDonald

+ Sunshine Golf Tour Media Release