Ross Fisher opens five shot lead

Briton Ross Fisher fired a three-under-par 70 to lead by five strokes after the second round of the South African Open on Friday.

Defending champion Tim Clark, the joint overnight leader with Fisher, crumbled to a five-over-par 78 as the average score for the day on the Links at Fancourt swelled to over 77.

Sweden's Henrik Nystroem (77), Irishman Michael Hoey (84) and South Africans Jaco van Zyl (82), Andrew McLardy (78), Warrick Druian (78) and Anton Haig (79) were other first-round front runners whose hopes of moving up the leaderboard were dashed.

But world number four Retief Goosen shot a three-under-par 70 for an aggregate of three-under-par 143 and second place, while Ernie Els also went round in 70 for a share of ninth place on level-par overall.

Fisher was four-under-par for his round after seven holes, but found trouble after the turn as the demanding links-style course bit back.

"I really wanted to press on because I was getting used to the course. You can shoot a low score here, but you can't let up. It takes 18 really solid holes," Fisher told reporters.

"It's typical links golf and you have to try to be patient and pitch short of the flags.

"I wouldn't say my game suited links golf, so it's a great challenge for me. But I'm getting used to controlling my ball flight and you need such imagination around the greens with all the humps, mounds and swales," Fisher said.

The 25-year-old bogeyed the par-three 11th hole and dropped two shots at the par-four 12th, battling to control the ball on the firm greens.

"I thought I hit a good shot into 11, it pitched pin-high but went over the green. But that's links golf and there was nothing I could do," he explained.

Fisher's length and consistency off the tee led to birdies on his last two holes to leave him in a commanding position.

South African Charl Schwartzel and his compatriots Leonard Loxton and James Kingston were in contention on two-under-par.

Clark three-putted the first two holes for bogeys and double-bogeyed the par-four 10th in a miserable round that included just one birdie, on the par-five 16th.

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