Ken Borland

SUN CITY, North-West – Callum Mowat began with two birdies and just continued on that high as he shot a 67 to lead the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City after the first round on Wednesday, saying afterwards it was a round that “made me feel good about me”.

Mowat’s five-under-par score included just one bogey on the testing Gary Player Country Club layout and he came home in three-under 33. That gave him a one-stroke lead over Rourke van der Spuy on four-under, while MJ Viljoen and Harry Konig were tied for third after shooting 69s.

“I’ve been inside a deep hole and I needed to figure out how I felt about myself,” Mowat said. “It was nice to feel I belong out here and I am competitive, it was good to feel good about myself and where my game is trending. It made me feel good about me.

“I just tried to be aggressive, just let fly and stop trying to steer the ball around, let it run! The demanding thing about Gary Player Country Club is off the tee, but I was more aggressive than usual.

“That meant I could hit a lot more greens with shorter irons. My game-plan was to just get as far as possible off the tee, it worked well and then I just stuck to the plan,” the 30-year-old Mowat said. The Glendower golfer had not broken 70 yet in four rounds this season at the FBC Zimbabwe Open and the Sishen Classic.

The 27-year-old Viljoen looked like catching Mowat as he raced to four-under through 14 holes, but a weak finish saw him drop a shot at the par-four 18^th to finish two back on three-under.

Van der Spuy started his round with eight pars, but he caught fire around the turn with birdies on the ninth and 10^th holes, and he picked up further shots on the 13^th and 17^th holes in a bogey-free round.

Konig, hailing from Devon in England, is in his first season on the Sunshine Tour and he also dropped just one shot, making a four on the par-three 16^th, in his 69.

It wasn’t really the weather for playing golf or even flying kites at Sun City on Saturday as the third round of the South African Open was unable to be completed, heavy thundershowers cutting short Justin Harding’s high-flying ascent to the top of the leaderboard.

Harding had just teed off on the 14^th hole, having gone to 11-under-par and a one-stroke lead over Danie van Tonder and Oliver Bekker, when the siren signifying play had been suspended due to the threat of lightning went off at 1.05pm.

It bucketed down for the next two hours, more than 30mm falling, and a typical Pilanesberg maelstrom was accompanied by heavy winds that had the trees waving around like flags at times.

But the organisers were hopeful of getting play back underway at 4pm, only for another storm to arrive, this time depositing a quick 8mm. A putative restart time of 5pm was then in place, but the storms just kept circulating over the ancient concentric rings of volcanic mountains that surround the Gary Player Country Club.

With the thunder and lightning never really going away, the day’s play was called off at 5pm. The third round, with the leaders having five holes to play, will be completed from 7am on Sunday and tournament director Reinard Kilian said they were hopeful of completing the final round in the afternoon.

“The safety of the players is what determined our decisions, that’s the first thing we think about,” Killian said. “The storms were predicted from 2pm and we changed the draw to try and finish by then.

“Unfortunately the storms got to us quicker than expected and then they just wouldn’t go away. And it was quite an intense, violent storm. Unfortunately every time we saw a window of opportunity to get play underway again, it would close with another storm popping up.

“There’s a chance of moderate rain tomorrow [Sunday] in the early morning and showers through the day. Thunderstorms are possible, but there’s not as high a likelihood as today.

“So we have a good feeling that we can complete the tournament tomorrow [Sunday]. The fairways should still be playable and we’re confident we can sort the bunkers out. The course should be as playable as it was this morning,” Killian said.

Harding became the co-leader with his third birdie on the front nine and, when overnight leader Oliver Bekker bogeyed the par-four ninth it meant he surrendered at least a share of first place for the first time in the tournament.

Bekker then bogeyed the par-three 13^th shortly before play was suspended, meaning Harding’s punishment for a bogey on the 10^th was shortlived.

Van Tonder was also flying on Saturday, also collecting three birdies on the front nine.

It may no longer be a co-sanctioned event, but the allure of playing the SA Open at Gary Player Country Club and having a shot at hoisting that famous and imposing multi-tiered trophy certainly brought out the best of Neil Schietekat on the first day at Sun City on Thursday.

Schietekat fired a marvellous seven-under-par 65 to join Oliver Bekker at the top of the leaderboard and afterwards pronounced his love for the famous Gary Player-designed course, where he won the SunBet Challenge in 2018.

“In my opinion this is the best course in the country and it helps that I’ve won here before,” Schietekat said after collecting six birdies and an eagle. “Obviously I’m going to lean towards this course, but I do love it and I played it today the same way as when I won in 2018.

“When they moved the SA Open here last year, I thought that maybe gave me a better chance of winning it. There’s still a long way to go, but I hit some good shots today on a course that was quite soft.

“It no longer being co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour is another story, but everyone here still wants to win it. It’s still our national open and it’s still the same trophy that you’ll hoist if you do win,” Schietekat said.

Bekker went out early on Thursday morning and made a fast start from the 10^th hole with three successive birdies. The seven-time Sunshine Tour winner was out in 32 and then eagled the first as he came home in 33. Schietekat admitted he felt a bit of pressure chasing the score set by Bekker.

“The scores were pretty good in the morning and I was one-over through four holes, so you put a bit of pressure on yourself,” the 37-year-old from Harrismith said.

But he finally caught him with a run of three successive birdies from the fourth hole, having eagled the par-five first as he spun a pitch-shot back into the hole despite “cursing” himself for finding the fairway bunker from the tee.

Having enjoyed a fine season which includes eight top-10 finishes in 16 events, Schietekat looks well-equipped to win again at the Gary Player Country Club.

But European Tour campaigner Bryce Easton and the experienced Lyle Rowe are just one shot behind on six-under, while there is a group of four golfers tied in fifth place on five-under – Hennie du Plessis, Albert Venter, Heinrich Bruiners and Hennie O’Kennedy.

Former world top 50 golfer Justin Harding is three strokes off the lead after a 68, while the other favourites – Shaun Norris (69), Danie van Tonder (69), defending champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout (70), Dylan Frittelli (70), Dean Burmester (71) and Brandon Stone (72) – have some catching up to do but are decently placed.

This week’s South African Open at Sun City may be missing the vast majority of the overseas contingent, but claiming the title of the second-oldest national open in golf is still not going to be easy with four golfers ranked inside the world’s top-100 leading the field at the Gary Player Country Club from Thursday.

Defending champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the highest ranked of those at No.48, but Garrick Higgo will be breathing down his neck, as he is on the rankings in 57^th place, as the duo battle for the unofficial crown of being South Africa’s hottest young golfer.

Current form will probably count for more than the rankings though and the other two top-100 players in the field – Dean Burmester and Shaun Norris – are both in fine form and should pose a serious challenge.

Norris, who finished tied for third in last weekend’s Joburg Open, has been wonderfully consistent over the last few months. In 11 events on the Japanese Tour, he won the Japan Open, had three other top-10 finishes and five in the top-20. Norris has enjoyed considerable success in Asia through the years, but will want to show just how good he is on home turf in the SA Open.

Burmester finished in the top-10 at both the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, finishing in a career-best 18^th place on the European tour’s order of merit. He is another who is a better golfer than many may think.

Another contender to look out for is world number 111 Dylan Frittelli, who plays alongside Bezuidenhout and Higgo on the U.S. PGA Tour and will be angry with his second and final round in the Joburg Open, when he shot one-over-par and dropped out of contention after his first-round 67 in the event that was reduced to 36 holes by the weather and Covid travel restrictions.

Those travel bans from South Africa have decimated the field in terms of overseas competitors, but there are still a few who will be teeing it up at Sun City.

Welshman Rhys Enoch is a regular Sunshine Tour competitor and he won the Cape Town Open in 2018 and the KitKat Group Pro-Am in March this year.

Scotsman David Drysdale and Brazil’s Adilson da Silva are also seasoned Sunshine Tour campaigners, Johannes Veerman is an American who won the Czech Masters on the European Tour this year and played in both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

There are even still a couple of Englishmen in the field in Steve Surry and Chris Cannon.