Ken Borland

HARARE – Jaco Ahlers has admitted to some frustration over how his 2024 has gone so far, but the 41-year-old put all that aside on Thursday as he roared around the Royal Harare Golf Club in seven-under-par to seize the lead after the first round of the FBC Zim Open.

Ahlers began the year with three missed cuts in his first four events spread between the Sunshine and Asian tours, but a runners-up finish in March in the Stella Artois Championship, finishing just a stroke behind winner Heinrich Bruiners at Dainfern, marked a change in fortunes. Since then he finished tied-10^th at the Saudi Open and was tied-13^th in the Waterfall City Tournament of Champions powered by Attacq last weekend at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s East Course.

On Thursday, Ahlers was in sublime form as he started his 2024/25 Sunshine Tour campaign in rampant fashion on the 10^th hole and reeled off three straight birdies to get his brilliant round of 65 going. He picked up another shot on the par-four 17^th and then eagled the par-five third hole. Although the world number 354 then bogeyed the fourth, he sealed a one-stroke lead with birdies on the seventh and eighth holes.

“It’s always nice to start that way, especially on the back nine here at Royal Harare, which is tougher, especially the greens, which are all raised,” Ahlers said.

“It’s difficult playing in this mid-year period because I play on the Asian Tour as well and that runs from January to December. This year has not been as good as I would have liked, but you just need to go on from there and today was a step in the right direction.

“Royal Harare suits me, it’s an old colonial course with big trees and dog-legs. The only way to play it is to be patient and not too aggressive,” Ahlers, who was tied-second in last year’s FBC Zim Open and fourth in 2022, said.

The highlight of Ahlers’ round was when he capitalised on a good drive on the 475m third hole and sent a searing six-iron to within six feet of the hole and sank the putt for eagle.

Michael Hollick is alone in second place on six-under-par after a 66 on Thursday. The Mount Edgecombe golfer reached the turn in one-under, but scorched through the back nine in just 31 strokes, with three successive birdies from the 11^th hole, and further gains on the 16^th and 18^th holes.

There is a strong chasing pack of five golfers on five-under-par, comprising seasoned winners Jacques Blaauw and Darren Fichardt, Zimbabwe’s own Scott Vincent, the experienced Anthony Michael and former University of North Texas college golfer Jason Roets.

EDENVALE, Gauteng – Maiken Bing Paulsen may come from the hip river city of Drammen in Norway, but she showed on Wednesday why she calls Glendower Golf Club her “home away from home” when she fired a six-under-par 66 to claim a share of the lead after the first round of the Jabra Ladies Classic.

Russia’s Nina Pegova also shot a 66, but there was little doubt Paulsen was the club favourite. That’s because whenever the 27-year-old is in South Africa playing on the Sunshine Ladies Tour, she bases herself in Johannesburg and uses the scenic Glendower course for training purposes.

“This is my home away from home, I have spent a lot of time here at Glendower,” Paulsen said after her round of six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys. “They have been really nice to me over the years, letting me practise here on this beautiful and tough course.

“So I know the members well and the staff have been very good to me. And it was a really enjoyable round today, I was really steady off the tee and I didn’t miss any fairways. And my putting was exceptional, I can’t remember when last I holed so many, but that’s something you can’t always count on,” Paulsen said.

In her fifth year on the Ladies European Tour, Paulsen began her round at Glendower on Wednesday on the 10^th and produced a scintillating front nine with five birdies and no dropped shots.

The front nine was more testing for her as she started with three pars and then went bogey-birdie-bogey. The turning point, and the shot that ultimately put her top of the leaderboard, came on the seventh tee.

“They moved us up this morning and the flag was 215 metres away. I wasn’t sure whether to use a three-wood because I thought that may have been too long, so I just hit a high fade instead and it landed a metre-and-a-half from the flag, then I made the eagle putt,” a delighted Paulsen said.

She only had a lease on the sole lead, however, because about 20 minutes later, Pegova joined her on six-under after making a birdie on the par-three 17^th. It was the 30-year-old’s eighth birdie of the day, and she also had two bogeys, on the fifth and 10^th holes, both par-fours.

England’s Gabriella Cowley was alone in third after shooting a 67, while South Africans Cara Gorlei and Nadia van der Westhuizen shared fourth on four-under-par. Fellow South Africans Tandi McCallum and Bronwyn Doeg were tied in sixth place after making 69s.

KEMPTON PARK, Ekurhuleni – Kiera Floyd and Casandra Alexander will go into the final round of the Absa Ladies Invitational sharing the lead after the pair of South Africans handled an exacting combination of a gusting wind and testing pin positions with aplomb at Serengeti Estates on Friday.

First-round leader Floyd shot a one-under-par 71 in the second round on Friday to go to six-under-par overall. The 19-year-old, playing on her home course, began her round on the back nine and started brilliantly with birdies on the par-five 11^th and par-three 12^th holes, where she chipped in. She added another birdie on the par-four second hole and led by four strokes at that stage.

But bogeys on the last two par-threes, the fifth and the ninth, dropped her back into a share of the lead as Alexander finished strong by birdieing the seventh and eighth holes.

Floyd, who double-bogeyed the fifth in the first round, once again found the bunker right in a spot without any sand and chipped over the green before getting up-and-down for a four. On her last hole, she three-putted from across the green.

The 24-year-old Alexander also started her second round on the 10^th and struggled to a one-over 37 at the turn. But she mounted a superb comeback on the front nine, picking up birdies on the first and second holes. She bogeyed the par-four sixth, but an excellent pair of birdies at seven and eight set her up for a final-round shootout with Floyd.

They are three shots ahead of another South African, the vastly-experienced Lee-Anne Pace, who collected three birdies in four holes around the turn and posted a one-under 71 on Friday.

Spain’s Harang Lee shot a 69 on Friday and leapt into fourth place on two-under-par and Namibia’s Bonita Bredenhann and South African Stacy Bregman are on one-under.

Floyd is chasing her maiden professional title and is hoping all the hard work she has put into her game and her mental approach pays off under the pressure of the final round and the expectation of home fans.

“I’ve put a lot of hard work into everything – my mental game, my range-work, my putting, my driving – and hopefully it pays off and I can hold all that together and come out on top,” Floyd said. The last time I was leading going into the final round was as an amateur and I’m looking forward to it, hopefully I can close it off.

“Conditions were a lot tougher today, the pins were tucked and the wind was up as well, and the greens were slower but very difficult to read. It helps that I know this course so well and which way the wind blows. It was swirling a lot today and we had crosswinds, downwinds and winds into you,” Floyd said.

“I had a slow start and struggled for birdies on the back nine, I had a lot of lip-outs and a couple of short-sides cost me drops,” Alexander said. “It was much harder today because there were some tricky pins and the wind and the pin-placements together made for quite a deadly combination.

“But it’s always a challenge I enjoy and something has definitely clicked this week after I got a new coach at the beginning of the year. When you do that, you go through changes and you have to be patient, even though you just want to score low straight away.

“But my game is getting better, it’s tighter and cleaner and my skew shots are not as skew. We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Alexander, a four-time winner on the Sunshine Ladies Tour, said.

KEMPTON PARK, Ekurhuleni – Young Kiera Floyd’s game and mentality seemingly improves with every event as she fired a wonderful five-under-par 67 on Thursday to claim the lead after the first round of the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s Absa Ladies Invitational at Serengeti Estates.

Floyd has produced back-to-back top-10 finishes in her last two tournaments and also contended strongly in the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt before an 84 in the final round saw her slip down to a tie for 15^th place. The 19-year-old is also playing at her home course at Serengeti and there is certainly a lot of expectation that the prodigy can notch up her breakthrough professional win this week.

She successfully managed that external pressure, and also composed herself brilliantly after an unfortunate double-bogey at the 122m par-three fifth hole, not dropping another shot as she finished with seven birdies in all. Three of those came in her first four holes, before her mishap on the first par-three, and then a birdie on the par-five eighth was followed by three more on the back nine.

“I know there is a lot of expectation on me this week and I know there are a lot of people who want me to do well here, but I put all that to the side. I just played like I had not played the course before, I started like it was a fresh round on a new course this morning,” Floyd said.

“And I was very happy with the way I played. The double-bogey was a bit unlucky because I hit my tee shot into a bunker where there was no sand, and then played a bit of ping-pong over the green.

“But I came back nicely and I am really happy with my performance. Off the tee and my putting were the best parts of my game, I sank a few nice ones, which definitely helps. It was not easy out there, but I gave myself a lot more opportunities to make birdie. But it is just the first round and I need to keep going,” Floyd said.

The 2022 SA Women’s Strokeplay champion is one stroke ahead of fellow South African Casandra Alexander, who provided the sort of birdie-birdie finish to her round that had the spectators recording the action on their cellular phones.

The 24-year-old Alexander’s 68 also included a double-bogey, at the par-five eighth, but she immediately pulled a stroke back by making a birdie at the par-three ninth. She was level-par at the turn, but birdies at the 11^th and 15^th holes, and then her two threes to finish saw Alexander soar up the leaderboard.

In a momentous day in this season’s Sunshine Ladies Tour, every place in the top-five is filled by a South African, breaking the overseas dominance that has been apparent in the previous four events.

Perennial winner Lee-Anne Pace, Tara Griebenow and Stacy Bregman all shot 70s on Thursday to share third place. Another South African, Nicole Garcia, was leading on four-under through 10 holes, but she struggled to a 39 coming home, finishing her round on the front nine, to join a dozen other golfers on level-par 72.