Ahlers soars to the top as rapacious putter joins the party
PORT EDWARD (KwaZulu-Natal) – Given his lack of joy with his putter recently, Jaco Ahlers made sure he was sinking birdie putts with rapacious intent when the short stick joined the party on the back nine on Wednesday as he soared to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Wild Coast Sun with a six-under-par 64.
Ahlers came home in a tremendous 30 strokes, making five birdies on the back nine. He leads Trevor Mahoney, who came home in 31 shots to post a 65, by one stroke, with Keegan McLachlan a shot further back after a 66 that included an eagle-two on the short, 315m par-four second hole.
The 41-year-old Ahlers has been playing solidly recently, but has not been getting reward on the greens. His last four finishes have been ties for 13th, fifth, 23rd and 10th.
“I finally made some putts today. The putter was the catalyst for my 64. Not so much on the front nine, where I had 16 putts, including sinking one from off the green for birdie on the fifth. But on the back nine I had just 12 putts, so I capitalised on some pretty good golf and sank nice putts on the 13th and 17th holes,” Ahlers said.
“I played two weeks ago in Morocco on the Asian Tour, and the putter was very cold, that probably cost me the win. But I’ve been playing decent golf lately and in the last few months my acceptance of things on the course has been a bit better.
“That’s a big thing at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club where conditions are always different one day to the other. The greens can be bumpy and there are normally strong winds, you just have to not get too agitated. The wind was up today but it was just experience, having played here and done well many times before, that allowed me to manage it well,” Ahlers, who won the 2016 Wild Coast Sun Challenge and lost in a playoff in the 2014 Vodacom Origins Wild Coast event, said.
Mahoney, a former South African amateur star, was level-par after eight holes, but then collected back-to-back birdies on the ninth and 10th holes. He was then able to further massage his score with a strong finish, picking up further strokes on the 15th, 16th and 18th holes.
McLachlan, from Silver Lakes Country Club, started his round on the 10th and went out in level-par. But the 25-year-old was excellent on the front nine, birdieing the first and fourth holes to add to his eagle on the second.
Jacques P. de Villiers, Gerhard Pepler, Pieter Moolman, Jaco van Zyl, Matthew Spacey and Leon Vorster were all tied in fourth place after shooting three-under-par 67s.