Gert Myburgh made the first albatross of his career in the opening round of the Final Stage Qualifying School for the Sunshine Tour on Monday as Randpark Golf Club allowed for some low scoring – no fewer than four players scored 67 to place themselves top of the leaderboard.
NJ Arnoldi, Teboho Sefatsa, Myburgh and amateur Aubrey Beckley all shot five-under-par 67 to station themselves at the top of the leaderboard. ‘I’m very happy about that round. I don’t know if you know but I made an albatross today; that’s my first albatross so I was quite happy with that,’ said Myburgh. ‘Usually I struggle on fast greens like these but I putted solidly today. I had one three-putt.’
Reflecting on how he made that albatross, Myburgh said: ‘I didn’t hit the best of tee shots; I just sclaffed it a bit to the right,’ he said, ‘I then hit a soft three-wood to the left with a small fade, and it just went straight to the pin. My playing partner, Ruan (Huysamen) told me it was in and at first I didn’t believe him.
‘He said he’d only believe it when he saw it in the hole.’
Also perched at the summit of the leaderboard was Beckley, whose seven birdies in a round in which he made two bogeys showed he has everything it takes to mix it up with the professional players. He said he had worked very hard in preparation of this tournament and that work seems to be paying off.
‘I was quite happy coming into this tournament with my short game. I was hardly focusing on any short game. The long game was a bit of a struggle over the last few months so I worked really hard on the long game and it was working nicely today. I’m happy!’ he said.
Sefatsa (pictured here) shot an impressive five-under-par 6 and says he is feeling his putter coming to the party following a lengthy spell of struggle with that aspect of his game.
He made just one birdie with no bogeys on the back nine which was his first nine on Monday, and found his putter coming home with five birdies and a single bogey.
‘You know, I have been hitting the ball pretty straight the last 18 months but I wasn’t making the most of the good shots that I would hit,’ he said. My putting was great today and that’s the only change that I have worked on, really.’
He says his plan is to keep his game as simple as possible and expressed his delight with his opening round where he plans to secure his Sunshine Tour playing privileges for the season ahead.
‘Look, anytime you can shoot a 67 in any tournament, you’d be very happy about it, so I’m chuffed,’ Sefatsa said. ‘All I can do now is keep it simple and keep going for the week.’
Sefatsa, a member of the Gary Player Class of 2017, is among the Sunshine Tour’s professionals who are playing to reclaim their cards, along with fellow squad members Jacquin Hess, Irvin Mazibuko, Trevor Mahoney, Thabang Simon and Neezy Thubisi.
Thriston Lawrence led a nine-man tie on four-under-par 68. The group included American Matthew Jennings, German Michael Pfeifer and member of the Gary Player Class of 2017 Jacquin Hess.
Nine more players finished the round with three-under-par scores including Sean Brady and Cody Martin of the United States, and local Trevor Mahoney.
Scores:
67 – N.J. Arnoldi, Teboho Sefatsa, Aubrey Beckley, Gert Myburgh
68 – Thriston Lawrence, Matthew Jennings, Jacquin Hess, Michael Pfeifer, Jaco Mouton, Coert Groenewald, Chris Lloyd, Jacques P de Villiers, Herman Loubser
69 – Jason Smith, Bryce McCabe, Gregg Blainey, Danie Van Niekerk, Trevor Mahoney, Wynand Dingle, Juan Swart, Damon Stephenson, Cody Martin, Sean Bradley
70 – Andre Nel, Combrinck Smit, Basil Wright, Roberto Lupini, Dayne Moore, Francois van Vuuren, Luke Jerling, David McIntyre
71 – Tristen Strydom, Teagan Moore, Conway Kunneke, Bennie van der Merwe, Matthew Spacey, Dylan Docherty, John Bele, Paul Colditz, Pieter Moolman, Antonio Rosado, Neil O’Briain, John Mc Clean, Paul Boshoff, Francois Coetzee
72 – Ryan Clarke, Matias Calderon, Albert Venter, Riaan Swart, Martin Rohwer, Luke Trocado, Richie O’Donovan, Dongkwan Kim, Kyle Pilgrim, Joe Heraty, Scott Campbell, David Ashley, Ruan Huysamen, TB Mathebula
73 – Ruan Korb, Andrew McLardy, Andrew Van der Knaap, Jeff Hopkins, Darin de Smidt, Irvin Mazibuko, Duane Keun, Damian Naicker, Roux Jeffery, Russel Franz, Zack Byrd, Louis Calitz, Jabulane Mabilane, Greg Bentley
74 – Zabastian de Jager, Bryce Bibby, Marco de Beer, Jonathan Waschefort, Wade Jacobs, Stuart Smith, Andi Dill, Juran Dreyer, Bryn Flanagan, Matt Bright
75 – Johann Mostert, Garth Wolter, CJ Levey, Tyron McComb, Juan Langeveld, Neal Herman, Brandon Cloete, Alex Van Heerden, Burger Heckroodt, Neezy Thubisi, George Brown, Oscar Floren, Adriel Poonan, Paul de Beer, Dean O’Riley, Kevin Rundle, Quintin Wilsnach
76 – Clinton Grobler, Thabang Simon, Arno Pretorius, Fredrik Lindblom, Axel Arinbjarnarson
77 – Christian Basson, Cedric Rooi, Chris Cannon, Anton Haig
78 – Otto van Greunen, PJ van der Merwe, Joe Nawanga
79 – Ryan Wingrove, Markus Sayra
80 – Joubert van Eeden, Jihwan Yeom, Jade Buitendag
DQ – Dougie Meijer