Ken Borland

Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti is the only golfer to claim a hole-in-one in the 40 years of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, so it was perhaps only prim and proper that he should be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of his first round on Thursday as Africa’s Major returned to Sun City.

With the limited fields in existence for most of the famous event’s history, it took 35 years for the first ace to be recorded, with Zanotti the man to make history when he sunk his seven-iron on the 195m par-three fourth hole in the second round in 2016.

On that occasion, his eagle took him to the top of the leaderboard, but unfortunately he could not hold on to that position as a 78 in the third round saw him tumble, but a 72 on the final day did see him finish tied-16^th.

On Thursday he also did not stay at the top of the pile, as he was overtaken by Guido Migliozzi and then Luke Donald and Ryan Fox, but his excellent four-under-par 68 means he is very much in contention to be the first South American winner of the tournament.

The 39-year-old Zanotti smiled broadly when reminded of his 2016 feat and asked whether the Nedbank Golf Challenge has a special place in his heart.

“I really like it here and you play holes and see places where you hit really good shots before. But this time I nearly hit it in the water on the fourth!

“But my play from the tee was one of the good things today. I made a great start on the 10^th with a birdie and then it was just about keeping patient.

“The wind always gets harder here and sometimes you miss the direction. And a few of the pin positions are very difficult, a bit inaccessible, but it is pretty fair overall.

“The greens are still a little soft, but as they get harder then the pin positions will be tougher,” Zanotti said.

The two-time DP World Tour winner is ranked 48^th on the order of merit, so he was understandably happy with his start to this Rolex Series event, tied in fourth place, four off the lead, with the top-50 on the points list going through to next week’s World Tour Championship finale in Dubai.

“I’ve been really steady this year, made a lot of cuts and had a few good results. But I need a good week here and I want to put four good rounds together because I always seem to make a few mistakes and have one poor round.

“At the beginning of the season, you always plan to be there in Dubai at the end, it was one of my goals. I am three days away from doing it, but I just need to be very patient in my thinking,” Zanotti said.

As much as Scott Jamieson delights in playing at Leopard Creek, so much did his golf entrance those watching as he fired a course-record 63 on Friday to claim a three-shot lead after the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The 39-year-old Scottish golfer, who was on four-under after the first round, three behind leader Dean Burmester, came charging up the leaderboard on the front nine, which was definitely playing tougher than the back nine.

Jamieson birdied the par-five second hole, but the real fireworks began when he started a run of four successive birdies from the par-three fifth hole.

Turning in 30 shots, Jamieson then produced a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th, again a par-three. That gave him the outright lead and a birdie on the 17th was just icing on the cake.

“This is my favourite week of the year, I just love this place and I did not know about the course record but it’s a special place to hold it,” Jamieson said after reaching the halfway mark of the tournament on 13-under-par.

“It was just one of those days when almost everything clicked, even though we are perfectionists so it always feels like we leave one or two shots out there.

“The back nine is generally where you score here, so when I went five-under on the front I knew I was in the pound seats and you just have to make sure you don’t get complacent, you have to keep your foot on the pedal.

“I got on a run where I was able to sink almost every putt I looked at, which is a wonderful feeling. I holed some crucial par putts as well, which kept momentum on my side, and it’s always nice to go bogey-free.

“The Driver was more under control today and I gave myself a lot of opportunities to hit it close, and with the rain, the greens were holding. I had good swings, I hit my targets and my putter got really hot,” Jamieson explained.

While the stunning Leopard Creek Country Club is Jamieson’s favourite office in which to work, South Africa in general has been a very happy hunting ground for the Glaswegian who now lives in Florida.

Jamieson’s lone DP World Tour triumph came at the weather-shortened Nelson Mandela Championship at Royal Durban GC in 2012, and in terms of world ranking points, the two best performances in his career have also been in South Africa – runner-up finishes in the 2017 Nedbank Golf Challenge and the 2013 Volvo Golf Champions at Durban Country Club.

“100% my best performances have come in South Africa. I think it’s mostly to do with the grass type, I always enjoy playing on Kikuyu.

“They’ve changed the grass here to Cynodon [indigenous to South Africa], and I really enjoy that too.

“I’ve played this tournament several times and I feel that I’ve learnt a lot about the course. I expect it to get a lot harder on the weekend and hopefully I can use my experience to stay on top,” Jamieson said.

Three more foreigners are tied in second place on 10-under-par.

Frenchman David Ravetto completed back-to-back 67s on Friday, while Eddie Pepperell fired six birdies on the back nine for a 65.

But the other most outstanding round of the day came from another Englishman, Nathan Kimsey.

The winner of last season’s Challenge Tour order of merit was on nine-under for his round, including two eagles on the front nine, when he reached the par-five 18th.

Feeling that he had been too defensive in the first round, when he shot 70, Kimsey brought an aggressive approach to his play on Friday and so, even though his drive on the last hole was in the semi-rough, he still decided to go for the island green.

Unfortunately he overshot the green and landed in the water, finishing with a bogey and a 64, which was the course record until Jamieson overtook it an hour later.

There are four South Africans on nine-under-par, four behind Jamieson.

MJ Daffue started on the 10th and reached the turn on just two-under, but the USA-based player was fantastic on the front nine, going four-under in his last seven holes to sign for a 66.

First-round leader Burmester had five birdies but also three bogeys he described as “basic mistakes” as he scored a 70 on Friday, but Oliver Bekker (66) and Dylan Mostert (65) were both clinical in moving themselves into contention for the weekend.

Canadian Aaron Cockerill was also one of the stars of the second day, firing a 65 to also go into the weekend on nine-under.

IRENE, City of Tshwane – Sunshine Tour rookie Ryan van Velzen roared to a marvellous eight-under-par 64 at Irene Country Club on Friday to claim a one-stroke lead after the first round of the KitKat Group ProAm, the R1 million tournament being held for the second time after flooding washed out the tournament in February.

The 21-year-old Van Velzen, playing just his fifth Sunshine Tour event, was particularly rampant on the par-fours, picking up six of his eight birdies there, to go with birdies on the par-five 10^th and 17^th holes. It was also a bogey-free round for the Benoni golfer, who won his card from the Big Easy Tour in January.

“I’m really happy and I played really nicely, hitting the ball good and close and making the putts,” Van Velzen said after racing past his previous best Tour round of 68.

“I drove the ball straight most of the day, I didn’t miss many fairways and my iron play was really good. I was surprised how good the greens were after all the rain and flooding earlier in the year.

“The course is in really good shape and you have to hit it straight off the tee because of all the trees. And the greens were pretty quick so you didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the hole,” Van Velzen said.

The former GolfRSA squad member was on the right side of most things on Friday, including an extraordinary tussle for top spot on the leaderboard that he eventually won.

Dylan Mostert finished just one stroke back after a brilliant 65, converting a great start after he was three-under through five holes.

Merrick Bremner, Ockie Strydom and JJ Senekal made the early running with their five-under-par 67s, but endured the frustration of watching the leading duo sweep past them in the afternoon, as well as the in-form Louis Albertse, Malcolm Mitchell and Keagan Thomas, who all shot 66s.

Rourke van der Spuy, who drank from the champagne bottle a week ago when he won the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City, was also part of the bottleneck at the top as he started on the 10^th tee and moved to four-under-par after his birdie on the third hole. But the aggressive 32-year-old did not quite have the finish he intended as he then bogeyed the par-four sixth and made pars the rest of the way in to finish with a 69.

SUN CITY, North-West – Rourke van der Spuy kept the door firmly closed on multiple Sunshine Tour winners Hennie Otto and Louis de Jager as another inspired putting display saw him shoot 69 in the final round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City to claim a three-stroke victory in the first event of the SunBet Series.

De Jager, who has won five times on tour, and Otto, who has a whopping 13 Sunshine Tour titles plus three on the European Tour, were Van der Spuy’s company in the final three-ball, breathing down his neck just one stroke behind the 32-year-old.

But Van der Spuy was unfazed, leading from start-to-finish in the final round. He made an early statement with birdies on the second and third holes, and even back-to-back bogeys on six and seven did not derail him. Birdies on the 10^th and 11^th holes put him back in command, and he sealed the deal with a fine approach into the middle of the 17^th green and a 25-foot birdie putt.

“It was just about spot-on in terms of our planning. My coach and I said we would go for a score in the 60s, on a tough course like this that felt like it would be good enough,” a delighted Van der Spuy said.

“Something under-par was our target and I’m very proud to have broken 70. I had control of my game, even when Louis went on a good run on the back nine. That birdie on 17 was my most clutch putt of the day.

“I’ve been very good on the greens all week and my only slip-up was a three-putt on seven, but that was a very long putt.

“I’ve always thought, why not lead and be the frontrunner, even one shot counts at the end of the day,” Van der Spuy said.

It’s been four years between celebrations for the Durban Country Club golfer, whose previous Sunshine Tour wins were at the Mopani Redpath Zambia Open in 2018 and the Fish River Sun Challenge in 2015.

Making the occasion even more special was to be able to beat Otto, who finished in a tie for third, four shots back, after a level-par 72 on Friday.

“Playing with Hennie was a wonderful feeling because growing up, and when I started at the bottom of the Sunshine Tour, I looked up to him as a mentor. He is such an accomplished and successful golfer, and Louis as well. Today I realised some childhood dreams,” Van der Spuy said.

Ockie Strydom fired a 68, the low round of the day, to finish in a tie for fifth on three-under-par with JJ Senekal (71) and the in-form Louis Albertse (72).

De Jager finished in second place on his own, on five-under-par, after making 71 in the final round. But he did give Van der Spuy some cause for concern on the back nine as he collected three birdies.

But not even that could distract Van der Spuy from his goal.