The 16-year-old Bloemfontein golfer followed an opening 69 with a 71 to finish one shot clear of Daniel Cronje from Boland at four-under-par 140.
With the mercury hovering around nine 10 degrees and a stiff north-easterly wind terrorizing the field, Nienaber began the day with a one shot advantage over Cronje and Southern Cape local Martin Vorster.
He mixed four birdies and three bogeys to reach the turn at four under. Cronje, meanwhile, bogeyed the first, but began closing the gap on Nienaber with birdies at seven and nine. When the Free State junior dropped another shot at the 10th, and Cronje catapulted to the top spot at four under with his third gain at the par four 11th.
Nienaber dropped two shots back with a bogey at 14, but Cronje also faltered and a bogey at the par four 15th cut his lead to just one shot. Knowing he needed a strong finish to remain in command, Nienaber reeled in back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 and closed with successive pars for his 71.
KwaZulu-Natal’s Chris Woollam moved into third at one under with a 71.
SECOND ROUND SCORES
140 Wilco Nienaber 69 71
141 Daniel Cronje 70 71
143 Chris Woollam 72 71
145 Deon Germishuys 74 71; Bradley de Beer 72 73; Christo Lamprecht 71 74
146 Sebastian Terblanche 71 75
147 Jayden Schaper 73 74
148 Martin Vorster 70 78
149 Marcus Taylor 75 74; Jethro Newton 72 77
150 Werner Deyzel 78 72; Ben van Wyk 73 77; Antoine Sale 72 78; Hendrik Naude 72 78; Keanu Pestana 71 79
151 Christopher Long 76 75; Tristan Galant 73 78
152 Ge-Rico Muller 75 77; Joshua Edwards 75 77; Barend Botha 71 81
153 Lisanthan Moodley 80 73; Reece Haikney 80 73; Shaun Jones 77 76; Warwick Purchase 77 76; Luke Pienaar 76 77; Calvin Maia 74 79; Andre van Dyk 73 80
154 Gordey Fatkulin 75 79; Christiaan Burke 73 81; Haydn Driver 72 82
155 Dijon Coetzer 78 77; Jordan Duminy 78 77; Willem Boshoff 74 81
156 Brendan Porter 76 80; Gerhard Pepler 76 80; Ayden Senger 76 80; Saul Moss 75 81; NJ Botha 75 81; Samual Mckenzie 72 84
157 Jordan Burnand 81 76; Bradley Fox 78 79; Nikhil Gopal 77 80; Eben Spangenberg 76 81; Stian van Aswegen 75 82; Tiaan van der Bank 74 83; Emerson Bam 74 83
158 Nkosenye Carl Mwale 79 79; Tyran Snyders 77 81; Nicholas Souranis 74 84
159 Adriaan Swart 80 79; Brandon Geere 78 81; James Murray 78 81; Liam van Deventer 78 81; Nash de Klerk 77 82; Dylan Underwood 76 83; Cole Stevens 74 85; Alexander van der Merwe 73 86
160 Aidon Willemse 77 83
161 Ryan van Velzen 85 76; Liam Ross 82 79; Miles Taylor 80 81; Luhan Bester 76 85; Reece Coleman 75 86
162 Angus Klintworth 82 80; Jean Pierre van der Watt 79 83; Freddie Spencer 78 84; Yurav Premlall 76 86
163 Ian Botha 82 81; Damian Osner 81 82; Juan Opperman 80 83; Francois van Rensburg 78 85; Nikhil Rama 74 89
164 Lumkile Mantshiyo 83 81; Francois Cilliers 76 88; Kieron van Wyk 76 88
165 Dandre Spies 84 81; Hoon Jeong 79 86
166 Charles Pieterse 82 84; Daniel van Seumeren 78 88
167 Gheran Hattingh 79 88; Tiago Swart 79 88; Xander Prinsloo 78 89
168 Arno Esterhuysen 88 80
169 Matthew Mc Carthy 83 86
170 Peter Thacker 87 83; Rigardt Albertse 82 88; Hanco Rudolph 81 89
171 Ryan van der Klis 85 86; Michael Terblanche 80 91
172 Cameron Walker 86 86; Anrico Meyer 86 86; Connor Myburgh 83 89; Logan Roos 83 89
173 Donneo Catanho 88 85
174 Janus van Rooyen 86 88; Benjamin Brent 84 90; Edwin Kruger 83 91
175 Keyan Loubser 87 88
178 Shaydon Johnson 92 86; Handro Griessel 89 89
184 Darian Fortune 84 100; Willem Gresse (Jnr) 82 102
187 Benji Stein 87 100
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
