Ken Borland

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Louis Albertse will remember with fondness the first three holes of the Royal Harare Golf Club as he birdied them all en route to a superb seven-under-par 65 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the FBC Zimbabwe Open on Thursday.

The Dundee Golf Club representative also birdied holes five through seven, giving him a tremendous start of six birdies in his first seven holes. But the back nine of the parkland course In Zimbabwe’s capital did bite back a bit, with Albertse dropping shots at the 10th and 16th holes.

But the birdies also kept coming, with the 25-year-old making a four at the par-five 12th hole, a three at the 14th and then finishing in style with another birdie at the par-four 18th.

Herman Loubser, the winner of the Lombard Insurance Classic last weekend at Arabella, shot a 66 at nearby Chapman Golf Club, the other course being used for an historic tournament that unfortunately could not be played for the last three years,  to claim second place on the first day of one of the premier African tournaments on the Sunshine Tour schedule.

Keagan Thomas and Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya were in third place, having shot five-under-par 67s at Royal Harare. The 121-year-old course was kinder to them on the back nine than it was to Albertse, with both Thomas and Muthiya coming home in just 33 strokes.

Albert Venter, Luca Filippi and Ryan van Velzen were all on four-under-par on a congested leaderboard, 34 golfers shooting under-par just to show how exciting our young talent is in Southern Africa.

Albertse challenged strongly at Arabella last weekend after shooting 66 in the first round, but his last two rounds (73, 75) did not work out quite as he had planned.

But he is obviously a young man building on the confidence of a groundbreaking 2021/22 season on the Sunshine Tour in which he finished in the top 50 on the Luno Order of Merit for the first time in

his career, including a maiden victory in the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Mount Edgecombe.

George Coetzee is not the only man who considers Pretoria Country Club to be his own stamping ground as Tristen Strydom showed on Thursday in shooting a brilliant seven-under-par 65 to join the first-round leader at the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Titleist Championship.

Coetzee has won two Tshwane Opens at the Waterkloof course and enjoyed plenty of junior success here, but Thursday was a struggle for him as he posted a 70 to move to seven-under for the tournament heading into Friday’s final round.

But while the 34-year-old’s record at Pretoria Country Club is well-known, Strydom showed his own liking for the parklands course with a phenomenal round that included eight birdies and an eagle. The next best round was a 67 by Louis Albertse that saw him make the cut.

The 23-year-old Strydom is in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour and has won less than R60 000 in 19 events.

“Man I am just absolutely loving it! To be playing on my home course, and to be feeling really confident, obviously helps a lot. I actually live on the course and all the members are really helping me and want me to play well. Glendower and Killarney are like this as well, all tough courses, but I just didn’t feel as comfortable on them. My goal was to just be in contention, so now I will just try and do the same thing in the final round.

“I putted really nicely and a lot more putts went in today. The momentum got rolling really nicely and then the eagle on nine took me to six-under. I know where not to hit it on this course and I was really good off the tee. The most important thing in the final round is just to have fun and it’s all good vibes out there, we are all just so happy we got the opportunity to be playing again,” Strydom said after his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour.

Strydom took advantage of going off at 7.45am in the fourth threeball, but as the weather cleared and the temperature increased significantly, so the greens speeded up and became particularly tough to hold. Coetzee, a fine iron player, said it was heavy going.

“It was all a bit scruffy, I didn’t hit the ball as well as in the first round and my game was just not all there, I was just not on it today. The pins were tricky, a lot of them were crazy, and the greens are fast so you end up going for the middle of the green at best. You have to play away from the pins and if you don’t focus, big numbers come into play. We were all putting 30 feet for birdie instead of from five feet.

“So I hit a lot of greens but I just tried to make no mistakes, I was maybe a bit too conservative. But a bogey on the first hole made me. In the end I’m actually quite happy to shoot something under-par,” Coetzee said.

Hennie O’Kennedy, the rookie who shared the overnight lead with Coetzee, had an even tougher day and notched up one of those big numbers with a nine on the par-five fourth, on his way to an 83 that saw him miss the cut by two strokes.

Another rookie, Clayton Mansfield of Durban Country Club, has played particularly well with rounds of 68 and 72 to lie in third place, three behind the leaders. Former SA Boys champion Pieter Moolman, of Benoni Lakes, shot an excellent 68 on Thursday to move into fourth on three-under-par, while the exciting young Jayden Schaper and nine-time Sunshine Tour winner Jaco Ahlers are on two-under-par.

A trio of exciting talents topped the leaderboard after the second round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday, with Jayden Schaper, Danie van Tonder and Martin Rohwer all tied on seven-under-par as the second event in the Rise Up Series heads into the final round on Friday.

Jaco Ahlers is obviously also very much in contention after he fired the round of the day, a four-under-par 68, to climb into fourth place on six-under, just one stroke behind. And the experience and skills of Darren Fichardt (-5), the winner last week at Killarney, Neil Schietekat (-5), Jake Roos (-4) and George Coetzee (-4) also cannot be discounted.

The combination of a top-class course with slick winter greens and the vagaries of a blustery wind made for a particularly tough test in Edenvale on Thursday, and overnight leader Rohwer could only follow up his brilliant 65 on the first day with a level-par 72. That allowed Van Tonder and Schaper, who both shot two-under 70s, to catch him.

“It got tough out there with the wind blowing at about 30km/h and the greens are slick too. You’ve got to pick your lines carefully and not always go for the flags otherwise you open yourself up for three-putts. It’s about hitting fairways and greens, you’ve got to stick with your selection of club, hit it as hard as you can and just hope it goes on. With the gusts you’ve got to time it correctly,” Van Tonder said after roaring out of the blocks with four birdies on the front nine but then coming home in 38.

Rohwer regained the lead with an eagle at the par-five 15^th, but then three-putted the last to slip back to seven-under. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old from Kloof Country Club was pleased with a day of solid ball-striking.

“I was really solid today from tee-to-green, I felt like I had control of the ball all through the round, but I just struggled on the greens. That three-putt on the last leaves a sour taste, but to be level-par with the conditions we were playing in, that’s not too bad. You were just not sure what the wind was doing so it was difficult to hit your numbers,” Rohwer said.

The winner of the Royal Swazi Open last year says he is up to the challenge posed by both the conditions and the likes of playing partner Van Tonder, who was on the charge early on in the second round.

“Sometimes you just have to play more conservatively, but there is still a fair share of opportunity out there. The wind is mostly across though and, with where the pins are located, it’s difficult to get close. It’s supposed to be windy again tomorrow, but I look forward to a third round in a row with Danie. I knew I was playing well today so I wasn’t too concerned about falling behind,” Rohwer said.

The 19-year-old Schaper showed enormous maturity as he held his round together after an up-and-down start in which he had two bogeys, a birdie and an eagle in the first five holes, before dropping successive shots around the turn.

“There was a lot more wind today, so it was a bit tougher, and the pins were all tucked in on the front nine, so I didn’t make a good start. I only hit three fairways in my first 12 holes and made a couple of three-putts, so I really put myself under pressure. But the back nine is much more accessible, I pulled myself together and finished well,” Schaper said.

But the hulking figure of Ahlers, who has won nine times on the Sunshine Tour, looms large, especially with the way he simply overpowered the par-fives on Thursday, collecting eagles on both the eighth and 15^th holes, and birdieing the 13^th.

Jaco van Zyl made sure that neither the heat nor the hidden dangers of Glendower Golf Club killed his momentum as he soared into the first-round lead of the South African Open with a great round of seven-under-par 65 on Thursday.

The 36-year-old South African teed off from the 10^th at 7am and started well with a birdie on the beautiful 436-metre par-four, and Van Zyl picked up further shots on the 13^th, 15^th and 16^th holes to reach the turn on four-under. That quickly became seven-under as he birdied the par-four first hole and eagled the second, but then the heat and a blustery wind began to take their toll and Van Zyl dropped a shot on the seventh before regaining it with a birdie on the eighth.

“It was absolutely gorgeous for the first few holes today, there was not a breath of wind, it was nice and cool, so you really needed to capitalise early on. By the time we got to our eighth hole [the 17^th], the wind really started picking up and it was warming up, so it just got so much tougher out there.

“It’s one of those golf courses that you go round and you think that it’s there for the taking, but as soon as you let your guard down a little, it bites. So you’ve always got to pick your safe targets off the tees and into greens,” Van Zyl said.

Another Gauteng golfer, Shaun Norris, also teed off from the 10^th but 20 minutes earlier than Van Zyl, and he claimed second place with a six-under-par 66 that included an eagle on the 500-metre, par-five 15^th.

South Africans Keith Horne and Jbe’ Kruger were the best of the afternoon golfers as they shot five-under-par 67s to share third place. Branden Grace fired a solid 69, while Retief Goosen was the best of the former champions with a 68 that included two double-bogeys.

But Glendower certainly showed her teeth for some of the other big names in the field, with defending champion Andy Sullivan slumping to a 75 after double-bogeys on the par-five second and par-three 17^th holes.

Two-time champion Trevor Immelman and George Coetzee were also three-over-par, while Hennie Otto, the last South African to win the national open, in 2011, shot a birdie-less 76.

Five-time champion Ernie Els, who also started off the 10^th, eagled the eighth but then three-putted for bogey on the ninth to finish with a 73.