Ken Borland

American rookie Bill Haas was building a significant lead during his first round at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Thursday, but two bogeys in his last three holes saw the leaderboard concertina on a gruelling day at the Gary Player Country Club.

With a tricky, shifting breeze blowing around the Pilanesberg valleys and brutal semi-rough waiting to punish anything slightly off line, Haas showed he had the stomach for the fight.

The 30-year-old son of distinguished American golfer Jay Haas, who is also at Sun City playing in the Champions Challenge for the seniors, Bill Haas had two loops of 35 for a two-under-par 70 that left him level with Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts at the top of the leaderboard.

Colsaerts, an extraordinarily long hitter who reined himself in on Thursday, had the most consistent round of the day with just one bogey, and he closed the gap on Haas with birdies on the 10^th and 11^th holes.

South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen, Scotsman Paul Lawrie and England’s Lee Westwood are on their coat-tails on one-under-par, while Francesco Molinari, Martin Kaymer, Peter Hanson, Charl Schwartzel and Carl Pettersson are all on par.

With the intense heat only adding to the discomfort, it was a day for intestinal fortitude rather than flashy golf.

And Haas had approached the last three holes well-pleased with himself as he sat on four-under-par, leading by two.

“I’d done well to get to four under, there was a bit of breeze out there, the wind showed its teeth today after being pretty docile before. It’s a good, tough course, and you had to drive it in the fairway because the rough just seems so much more penal here. Other than the finish, I took a lot out of my round,” Haas said.

And part of the Gary Player Country Club’s brutality was that the moment a golfer relaxed and thought he was cruising, the course bit back. With a vengeance.

“The 15^th is one of the tougher driving holes, but I hit driver and a wedge to six feet for birdie, so maybe I was too confident and I pulled my drive on 16,” Haas said.

That led to his first bogey since the third hole and then, on the 18th, his tee shot found the left rough. His second then found more rough just short of the greenside bunker. Haas was unable to chip on to the green at the first attempt and his second chip rolled 10 feet past the hole.

“I was very happy to make that putt for bogey! But if I’d hit it into the bunker in the first place, I’d probably have made four,” Haas complained.

Justin Rose, the highest-ranked golfer in the field, was another who paid the price for getting ahead of himself as he ended the first day second-from-bottom after a 73.

Having surged up the leaderboard with successive birdies on the par-fives around the turn, he then bogeyed the 11^th, 12^th and 13^th holes. His troubles started on the dogleg par-four 11^th when he tried to take the “Tiger-line” over the trees on the left, came up short and landed behind a tree. His second rebounded off the tree, going 40 metres backwards, and his fall from grace had begun.

Colsaerts turned 30 two weeks ago but has had the life experience to make him a font of wisdom. An immensely talented golfer who won his European Tour card when he was just 18, the party scene derailed his career for a few years before he began to fulfil his promise.

“I feel like I’ve led a few different lives,” he is quoted as saying by the official tournament brochure.

A top-20 finish in the Race to Dubai in 2011 was followed by victory in the World Matchplay Championship and a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team, Colsaerts playing a key role in their triumph.

Being able to quite literally “drive for show” also carries its temptations, but Colsaerts showed admirable maturity on Thursday.

“I didn’t use a very aggressive game plan, even with the driver when I used it. I think I played like everyone else, hitting the same spots, because you were better off hitting an iron from the fairway than a lob-wedge out of the kikuyu rough. I probably played close to my best in terms of management off the tee,” Colsaerts said.

Oosthuizen, sporting a Movember moustache that would surely be the pride of Bloemfontein, was the most impressive of the South Africans with a perfect back nine that included birdies on the 10^th and 18^th holes.

It could have been a totally different story for South Africa’s highest ranked golfer as he followed up a birdie on the par-five second hole with three bogeys, before settling himself with a brilliant birdie on the par-four eighth.

Ten golfers finishing within two shots of the lead told the story of a day when no one was able to conquer a course that takes sadistic delight in exposing and magnifying the smallest of errors.

Which is perfect for what is billed as “Africa’s Major” – what is still, for the time being, the most lucrative tournament on the toughest continent in the world.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-30-nedbank-challenge-its-africas-major-make-no-mistake

American Bill Haas and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts shared the first-round lead at the Nedbank Golf Challenge on Thursday, but they were far from a dominant position as eight of the 12-man field finished the day within two strokes of the pair.

Haas and Colsaerts both shot two-under-par 70s to head the leaderboard, with Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Lawrie and defending champion Lee Westwood just a stroke back.

Five other golfers were level-par after the first round, including former world number one Martin Kaymer and South African Charl Schwartzel.

On a cloudless, boiling hot day in the Pilanesberg, the 12-man field struggled in tough conditions, with a shifting breeze and the thickness of the rough causing much uncertainty.

Oosthuizen, the highest-ranked South African golfer in the world, claimed the early lead after he rebounded from a one-over-par outward nine, featuring three bogeys and two birdies, with a solid two-under 34 coming in, for a 71 overall.

But Haas, a Sun City rookie, stormed to four-under-par through 15 holes before slipping back to a 70 after dropped shots on the par-three 16th and par-four 18th holes.

Colsaerts, playing in the two-ball after Haas, produced the most consistent round of the day with just a single bogey, at the daunting par-four eighth hole.

The long-hitting Ryder Cup hero, also making his debut in the NGC, said it was hard work making allowance for the wind as well as altitude and the thickness of the semi-rough.

“The wind was a bit difficult to read. It always seemed to be coming off the side,” Colsaerts said.

“And with the effects of altitude and different grass to what we’re used to in the rough, it was very easy to get your yardage calculations wrong.”

The 30-year-old Colsaerts is one of the most entertaining golfers in the field, given his length off the tee, but he said he felt compelled to rein himself in because of the testing conditions.

“I didn’t use a very aggressive game plan, even with the driver when I used it. I think I played like everyone else, hitting the same spots, because you were better off hitting an iron from the fairway than a lob-wedge out of the kikuyu rough.

“I probably played close to my best in terms of management off the tee.”

Haas had the chance to separate himself from the rest of the field, but the American, whose father Jay is playing in the Champions Challenge on the same course, was satisfied with his round.

“I’d done well to get to four-under. There was a bit of breeze out there, the wind showed its teeth today, and, after missing a short putt on 16, I was happy to make a 10-footer for bogey on the last,” Haas said.

“I didn’t win it today, but I’m not out of it either.”

England’s Justin Rose, one of the pre-tournament favourites, will have to put pressure on the leaders from afar after he struggled to a one-over-par 73. The world number four birdied the two par-fives around the turn, but then picked up three successive bogeys from the 11th to 13th holes.

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Merrick Bremner was at 225:1 to win the South African Open at the start of the first round on Thursday.

I know because I was reliably informed by a punter who had bet on the 26-year-old to win the second-oldest national open in world golf.

A few hours later, Bremner was atop the leaderboard with an eight-under-par 64 and was the overnight leader after the first round of the co-sanctioned European/Sunshine tour event at Serengeti Golf Estate near Kempton Park.

Those odds will now be considerably shortened and I’m left ruing the fact I didn’t talk to the punter a day earlier.

Bremner, who was in the sixth three-ball out at 7.05am, came roaring out the blocks with birdies on the first two holes and he also claimed three successive birdies coming in to shoot a brilliant 30 for the front nine. The Pretoria resident then eased off on the back nine, coming home in 34.

It’s not that the chunky golfer was getting lazy either. Rather, it was a conscious decision to make sure he converted his great start into a great round.

“I played fantastically on the front nine, I didn’t miss a green and in theory I could have shot 28. Then I made the turn and still hit good shots, but I started thinking a bit more and playing clever golf. I wasn’t as aggressive as normal because I wanted to hold my round together and post a decent score, not four or five-under. I made sure I hit the fairway and then made sure I hit the right part of the green for a makeable chance,” Bremner explained after his round.

Bremner, who began playing golf just down the road at Kempton Park Golf Club, says his clear thinking on the course was thanks to the work he’s done with a sports psychologist.

“I think it’s got a lot to do with the work I’ve been putting in behind the scenes, not only on the golf course but also with a mental coach by the name of Tim Goodenough. Now my thought patterns and decision-making on the course have changed. Now I can see the bigger picture and it’s not just about brawn, it’s sometimes about the brain as well,” Bremner said.

Bremner is renowned for being a big-hitter and his biggest drive was 345 metres, into the wind, on the par-five 16^th. Lady Luck was on his side there, though, as she kept his pulled tee-shot out of serious trouble and allowed him to hit his second over the water and on to the green in two, leading to his eighth birdie.

But on a course that has plenty of threats with lethal rough just off the fairways, the fact that he did not make a single bogey suggests the up-and-coming Bremner is on track to make a big name for himself this weekend.

Bremner is two strokes ahead of another young South African in Matthew Carvell, but Henrik Stenson (-6) and Charl Schwartzel (-4) are lurking dangerously in the top 10.

Carvell is a Sunshine Tour journeyman, having never finished higher than 48^th on the Order of Merit, but the 27-year-old is just going to enjoy the experience.

“This is my first SA Open and my first press conference! It’s a little bit overwhelming so I’m just trying to enjoy the week and see what happens. Maybe I’ll get some good TV coverage!” he joked.

Schwartzel was also impressive in posting six birdies, while his only blemish came on the par-three 12^th, which he double-bogeyed. The 2011 Masters champion said it was a useful reminder of how wide-awake you had to be on the sloping Serengeti greens.

“I made that double by four-putting. It was from off the green, but I used the putter four times, which wasn’t ideal. But the greens are severe and you’ve got to pay really good attention to where you hit your second shots. You can get caught off-guard here very quickly and make a soft bogey on these greens, so you’ve got to be wide awake,” Schwartzel said.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-16-south-african-open-bremners-flight-to-the-top