Trevor Fisher Junior on his way to seven-under

Late starters Simon Dyson and Trevor Fisher Junior claimed the first-round lead of the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Thursday after a weather-curtailed opening round.

Dyson, teeing off at midday in match 29 of 39 to go off the first tee, staged a spectacular finish to his round as he collected four successive birdies to post a seven-under-par 65.

Fisher Junior teed off 50 minutes later and his round was suspended by a large storm that arrived at Copperleaf at 5.30pm, but the South African had already moved to seven-under-par through 16 holes by then.

Both Fisher Junior and Englishman Dyson played bogey-free rounds.

Earlier in the day, South Africans Jared Harvey and Erik van Rooyen, and Englishman Ross Fisher had claimed a share of the early lead with 66s, before being overtaken by Dyson and Fisher Junior.

South Africans Darren Fichardt, through 17 holes, and Danie van Tonder were also on six-under-par when play was called off for the day.

South African Open champion Morten Orum Madsen was in a six-man group on five-under-par, having eagled the par-four seventh hole and then picking up a second eagle on the par-five 15^th when he hit his approach shot stone-dead. The Dane was about to hit his second shot on the 18^th hole when play was suspended.

Dyson, a six-time European Tour winner, credited his fine round to his ability to recover from lost causes.

“It was a really nice finish, set up by three really good up-and-downs on the three previous holes. On 15 and 16 I also managed to get up-and-down from near the green for birdies and it’s my lowest round for a few years,” Dyson said.

The 36-year-old is also on the comeback trail after a European Tour disciplinary hearing ruled in December that he had been guilty of a deliberate but un-premeditated breach of the rules when he was disqualified from the BMW Masters in Shanghai in October for illegally tapping down a spike mark before he putted. He was fined £30,000 and given a two-month suspended ban, but he admitted there were times when he feared his professional golfing career was dead.

“Today’s round definitely shows I’m in a good state of mind. The controversy gave me my love of the game back, there was a chance it was going to be taken away from me. It made me knuckle down and really enjoy the game again, which isn’t bad in my 14^th year on tour,” Dyson said.

Young Van Rooyen, who turned pro last year after playing American college golf for the University of Minnesota, led the qualifiers into the tournament with a 66, and he repeated that score on Thursday, although he admitted the strain of pre-qualifying for every tournament was taking its toll.

“The qualifiers are tough, it’s like a sprint because you only have one round. And then the actual tournament is like a marathon straight afterwards. You’re so happy and pumped that you’ve qualified, but then you have to re-set so you don’t lose focus on the first day. I am getting tired, I won’t lie, it’s quite a lot of pressure and a lot of golf,” Van Rooyen said.

But winning a co-sanctioned event changes lives and Van Rooyen is in line to not have to worry about qualifying any more.

Ross Fisher, number 82 in the world and the second-highest ranked golfer in the field, is lurking dangerously just one shot back and, ominously, says he feels quite comfortable playing in South Africa.

“My game feels in good shape and I don’t know what it is, I just enjoy playing down here and I seem to play quite well. The long game still feels like it’s there and if I can hole a few more putts then I think there will be some really low scores from me,” the 2010 Ryder Cup player said.

George Coetzee, the highest-ranked golfer in the field in 53^rd place, is in a tie for 36^th after shooting a 70, while defending champion Dawie van der Walt is in trouble on five-over-par through 15 holes.

http://www.thenewage.co.za/119857-18-53-Dyson_and_Fisher_share_Tshwane_open_lead

Bryce Easton’s highly noticeable yellow floppy hat is at odds with his modest self-effacing personality, but the 25-year-old thrust himself into the limelight with a seven-under-par 65, that included a hole-in-one, on the tougher East Course in the opening round of the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Thursday.

Easton’s brilliant round left him one stroke behind the early lead of eight-under-par set by 2008 champion Richard Sterne on the easier West Course, and was one of the main talking points of the morning.

But the lanky Durbanite was still surprised by all the fuss.

“Why do the media want to talk to me? Surely they’re waiting for Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace?” he said.

While Easton did not drop a stroke and holed his tee-shot on the 167-metre par-three 12th, he said he was not entirely satisfied with his round, having erred too many times for his liking with the driver.

“I missed a few fairways so I still need to figure out the driver a bit, I have some work to do this afternoon. But it’s nice to have a round where you don’t hit the ball so well but you still score well.

Golf’s a funny game, sometimes you hit the ball flush and you don’t score so well,” Easton said.

Easton took a seven-iron on the 12th hole and the ace meant he went away with a million bonus points from the Hilton Hotel group, sponsored by Investec, which translates to about R100 000 of free accommodation.

“It’s my first hole-in-one and you obviously don’t think about it when you’re playing the hole. But then the ball goes in and it takes you a couple of seconds to realise it’s disappeared. It was an awesome feeling and the million Hilton points is a nice bonus,” he said.

It was a great day in the office for the two-time winner on the 2012 Sunshine Tour and there is always the expectation of going lower on the West course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. But Easton  will not be taking anything for granted.

“I know the West course a bit better, before today I’d only played a single practice round on the East, but you never know how things will go.”

With 2012 having been a breakthrough year for the 2011 rookie, Easton was asked whether he was targeting the European Tour co-sanctioned events this year.

“Yes, I want to play more consistently and compete more in these bigger events. Last year I had a couple of wins, but I didn’t play so well in these co-sanctioned tournaments,” Easton said.

Having won the Sun City Challenge, eagling the last hole to force a playoff, and the Zebula leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf two weeks later in 2012, Easton is clearly a golfer whose talent is beginning to bloom.

Thomas Aiken shot a fantastic five-under-par 68 in the opening round of the Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt on Thursday, but was more eager to discuss an issue that should be of importance for all of us proud South Africans.

Aiken appeared at his post-round press conference wearing a “Rhino Revolution” cap and was only too happy to give an explanation.

“I haven’t got a sponsor and I wanted to promote something worthwhile and what could be more worthwhile than saving rhinos? It’s disgusting what’s happening to them, they’re part of the Big Five and it’s a matter of national heritage for all of us, far more important than this golf tournament,” Aiken said.

“I started the Thomas Aiken Rhino Fund and I’ve done my homework about where the money goes. Trevor Jordan of Jordan Properties in Hoedspruit does a fantastic job with Rhino Revolution and I’ve heard people saying about other rhino organisations that you don’t really see where the money goes.”

The Johannesburger pointed out that organisations trying to protect rhinos are struggling to afford the sort of weaponry the poachers are utilising.

“It’s a war and either rhino survive or they go extinct. The poachers get a million dollars a horn so we have a serious financial problem: they have a lot of money and we don’t. We need to fight cleverly – we’re using the money raised for trackers on the ground, roadblocks on the two roads leading out of Hoedspruit and we have help from the air force and their radar station because the poachers are now shooting from helicopters,” Aiken explained.

Rhino Revolution are also hoping to dehorn as many rhino as they can – which Aiken admitted can be controversial.

“We’re trying to dehorn rhino, which is very controversial, but we have fantastic vets doing it and having done over 500 rhino, we haven’t had a single fatality. The horn is like a fingernail, it grows back in about five years and the only problem with dehorning is if one of the rhino gets into a territorial fight with a rhino that still has its horn.”

But Rhino Revolution’s most controversial plan is to legalise the sale of rhino horn and then flood the market to remove the demand.

“We’re trying to legalise the trade and flood the market, so that it brings the price down. We will pump the proceeds back into conservation. At the current rate of poaching, rhino will be extinct in six years, so we have a serious time frame, there’s no time to ‘um and ah’. We’re sticking to our guns and it’s working,” Aiken said.

The Southern Cape is home turf for Branden Grace and he made it count with a fine five-under-par 68 in the opening round of the Volvo Golf Champions at the Fancourt Links on Thursday.

“I’m feeling good, feeling great, it’s nice to play at Fancourt in front of a home crowd and I’m hitting the ball well,” a content Grace said after his round, which left him in a tie for second, four shots behind Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts.

Grace and Thomas Aiken are the leading South Africans after the first round, with Grace enjoying a purple patch after he finished in a tie for 14th at the Africa Open and then claimed the honours in last week’s Joburg Open.

It was the 23-year-old’s first European Tour victory, but Grace has not allowed the good fortune to go to his head or disturb his focus.

“I don’t think the win has settled in so far, I haven’t really had time to sit back and think about it or what happens in the next couple of weeks. But my concentration is still there, although I am a bit tired. I’m on a roll and I just need to keep my head down and run with it,” Grace said.

The George Golf Club representative obviously knows nearby Fancourt extremely well and he admitted that he never thought he’d be as many as four shots behind after shooting a 68.

“You don’t really expect to be four behind after shooting a 68. That’s one helluva score Colsaerts shot and it will be nice to see how he follows up. But he hits it a mile, which definitely helps around here. He’ll be getting close to a lot of the greens and then if he holes some putts, he can come off with that sort of score. It’s nice to know that sort of score is out there,” Grace said.

Life has changed immensely for Grace thanks to his Joburg Open triumph and his mere presence in this elite 35-man field is one of the benefits. He had the privilege of playing with Ryder Cup captain and two-time Masters champion Jose-Maria Olazabal on Thursday.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it, he’s one of my role-models. He’s a great gentleman and you can just see by the way he conducts himself on the course that he is all-class. He’s the Ryder Cup captain for a reason.

“He cracked the odd joke, he told me when I did something good, a good swing, good shot. It was awesome playing with him and nice to get off to a good start playing with somebody like that,” Grace said.

The former Fancourt Foundation member began with a birdie on the first hole, but the putter then misbehaved on the par-four third and fourth holes, leading to successive bogeys. But the highlight of his round came on the 568-yard ninth hole, which he eagled.

“I hit my drive over the trap and had 257 yards to the green. The green is really hard to hit and you’ve got to miss it in the right place. I hit a great three-wood and missed it right, from where I chipped in.”

Grace admitted that the eagle had “jump-started” his round and he birdied the next two holes as he cruised through the back nine in four-under-par 33.