Ken Borland

SUN CITY, North-West – Like a smooth-running car, American Brooklin Bailey felt that all the different parts of his game were in synch on Thursday as he raced into the lead after the first round of the Blue Label Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club.

Bailey, who began his round on the 10^th hole, collected five birdies and an eagle for a bogey-free 65, that translated into 15 points in the modified Stableford scoring system. He was four points ahead of Portugal’s Stephen Ferreira, who had six birdies and a bogey, while the leading players under the South African flag were Ockie Strydom and Jaco van Zyl in third place on 10 points.

“It was nice, hot weather so the body got loose early and I felt super-comfortable after making a great start with birdies on my second and fourth holes,” Bailey said. “I played really well, it just felt fluent in terms of what my swing, my body and the ball were doing.”

Coming from Texas, a typically hot October day in the Pilanesberg, with the temperature reaching 36°, was no bother for the 28-year-old Bailey, who has played the famous Gary Player Country Club layout a couple of times before and embraces the challenge rather than being daunted by it.

“I haven’t gone on very well here before, although I feel like I played good golf but did not get much out of it,” Bailey said. “But it’s a venue I really like, a real test of golf, it tests every facet of your game.

“A lot of credit must go to my caddy George, who made a lot of great decisions and kept me patient. It was a great decision to lay up on 18 and make birdie, and then I holed out from the bunker on the first hole for eagle. Then I hit it to a foot on the next hole for another birdie,” a delighted Bailey said.

Picking up nine points around the turn really knocked the other contenders out of the first-round race, and Bailey is now focused on backing up Thursday’s marvellous score with another low one in Friday’s second round.

“My game has been there this season, just not necessarily full-time,” Bailey admitted. “You’re not going to win or finish top-10 every week, but making cuts is important and in my last seven events I’ve had three top-10s and missed four cuts.

“So I’m really focusing on my consistency. I’m playing well when I’m on form, but there are little parts of my game that need improving, especially in putting and finding the fairways, those are certainly the two key areas.

“I felt like I’ve found my Driver, and after having a putting lesson this week and working on it for three hours one morning, I was really feeling comfortable on the greens as well,” Bailey said.

The Proteas play their final game on Tuesday before heading off to Australia for the T20 World Cup, the deciding match in their ODI series in India, and surely Reeza Hendricks must now be a part of every white-ball game for at least the next month?

Hendricks belatedly played his first match in India at the weekend, brought into the XI because regular captain Temba Bavuma was ill, and looked pure class he stroked 74 off 76 balls on a tricky, low-and-slow pitch in Ranchi.

It means Hendricks has now scored 370 runs in his last six innings for South Africa, dating back to July. That is the sort of form that it would be criminal to waste, especially for a batting line-up that has had some horror collapses of late.

Because Hendricks is in the T20 World Cup squad but Janneman Malan is not, one would expect Malan to be the player who makes way on Tuesday if Bavuma is fit to play again. Although Malan’s overall career ODI stats are still superb, in his last 12 innings, he averages just 24.83 at a strike-rate of only 69.95.

Of course, Hendricks should also be in the XI at the T20 World Cup, but he would have to replace captain Bavuma. But if ever there was a good argument for leaving out the appointed skipper, the difference in confidence and output that Hendricks would bring has to be it.

While Bavuma’s position is the major talking point heading into the World Cup, the form of spinner Tabraiz Shamsi is also concerning. Sixteen months ago he was first on the T20 bowling rankings, but his performances have been on the slide in India.

It has never been his favourite place to play, and India’s ruthless aggression towards him has made his life difficult, knocking his confidence.

Hopefully he will be out of this weirdly erratic phase in Australia, because he plays an important role in South Africa’s T20 team. Shamsi was also ill over the weekend and his wicket-taking ability in the middle overs was missed by the Proteas in the second ODI, as Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer belted their way to victory by seven wickets with 25 balls to spare.

The Sharks scored five tries and contributed superbly to a dazzling game of rugby, but sadly their defence was found wanting and was nowhere near the quality of their attacking play, as Leinster thumped them 54-34 in their United Rugby Championship match in Dublin on Saturday evening.

A brilliant first half saw Leinster and the Sharks trade tries as the home side went into the break just 21-20 up. They were still just one point ahead as the hour mark loomed, a magnificent solo try by wing Thaakir Abrahams lifting the visitors back to 27-28.

But the Sharks unfortunately lost the plot in the final quarter as Leinster scored five tries to one in those 20 minutes. A game that had produced so much brilliant rugby sadly ended on a sour note as Sharks centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg was correctly red-carded for a wild tackle that saw his swinging arm hit opposite number Robbie Henshaw in the chin, sparking off a melee.

While the Sharks showed fantastic skill and imagination in attack, cutting Leinster open off lineout drives and scrums, their defence was consistently found wanting out wide, where Leinster found space through brilliant kicks or great handling.

Leinster flyhalf Jonny Sexton, or Sir Jonny as he is known in Dublin, pulled the strings superbly, his kicking being brilliant. He kicked seven out of eight conversions, which kept the hosts ahead on the leaderboard in the early stages, and his crosskicks were a real thorn in the Sharks’ flesh, with centres Henshaw and Charlie Ngatai also setting up tries from precise kick-passes.

The Sharks’ defence was again caught too narrow too often, and coach Sean Everitt will need to sort that out.

But he will be delighted with their wonderful attacking play, highlighted by the brace of tries scored by Abrahams. His second try, in the 55^th minute, was outrageous. He did well to claim a tricky, pressure high-ball, and then scampered away from a crowd of defenders, kicked ahead and then beat replacement wing Garry Ringrose to the touchdown.

Fullback Aphelele Fassi scored two tries as well, but had a mixed evening as he was a revolving door in defence at times.

Flank Dylan Richardson bossed the breakdowns, and the Sharks seemed to have the edge at scrum time, although there were precious few of those, which speaks to the quality of the game and how few handling errors there were.

Leinster’s forwards also carried superbly, and it was the attention they demanded from the Sharks defence which also contributed to the space out wide.

Scorers

Leinster: Tries – Jason Jenkins, Garry Ringrose (2), Andrew Porter, Robbie Henshaw, Rob Russell, Jonny Sexton, John McKee. Conversions – Sexton (7).

Sharks: Tries – Aphelele Fassi (2), Werner Kok, Thaakir Abrahams (2). Conversions – Boeta Chamberlain (2), Nevaldo Fleurs. Penalty – Chamberlain.

BENONI, Gauteng – Jayden Schaper enjoyed an excellent day on his home course of Ebotse Links as all aspects of his game came through for him in a seven-under-par 65 that gave him a share of the lead with Clinton Grobler and Ockie Strydom after the first round of the Fortress Invitational on Friday.

The highly-promising Schaper began his round on the 10^th hole with a birdie, and followed that up with consecutive gains on the 12^th and 13^th holes. A marvellous outgoing nine holes was capped by birdies at the par-three 15^th and par-five 18^th, seeing him go to the turn in just 31 strokes.

Schaper picked up three more birdies in four holes from the fourth, and even a bogey at the par-three eighth could not put a damper on a superb round of golf.

“Playing on my home course is a bit of an advantage because I know where certain pins are, where to miss and which bunkers to avoid,” Schaper said after his best round of the Sunshine Tour season so far.

“But you’ve still got to hit the ball well, hit the shots and make the putts. In the last couple of weeks, my tee-to-green play has been solid and I’ve been slowly getting better on the greens too.

“Today I just played really solid golf, I made good decisions and hit some really good shots. I was consistent today,” Schaper said.

The return of long-time coach Grant Veenstra from the United States may also have played a role in the impressive showing, with Schaper saying “it was the first week I’ve seen him in the last couple of months and it was really good to have him back to help out.”

Grobler, the 28-year-old Krugersdorp golfer, also started on the 10^th and began the round with three straight birdies, while bogeying the 17^th and fourth holes on the way to his 65. The highlight of his round was his eagle-three on the 18^th.

The in-form Strydom, from the nearby Serengeti Estate, cruised through the front nine in four-under-par, but then the rollercoaster began: The 37-year-old bogeyed the par-four 10^th, then grabbed a hat-trick of birdies from the 12^th, dropped a shot at 17, but then finished spectacularly with an eagle on the last hole to vault into a share of the lead.

The leaderboard is congested, with five golfers shooting 66, including the veteran Hennie Otto, the American Dan Erickson, the amateur Kyle de Beer, as well as Makhetha Mazibuko and Richard Joubert.

Wynand Dingle, the winner of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series San Lameer event three weeks ago, is in the group on five-under-par.