Tom McKibbin is nicely placed inside the top-10 after day one at the Jonsson Workwear Open at Glendower Golf Club in South Africa.
The 21-year-old started the day solidly with birdie, bogey, birdie setting the foundations for what would turn out to be one of the dramatic three balls of today’s opening round.
Despite later frustrations, McKibbin’s iron play was its usually strong feature in the early stages. Two more birdies at the par-5 sixth and par-3 eighth would see the Hollywood man card a very respectable 33 on his outward nine.
Things would get more interesting for this group on the back nine. McKibbin began with two more birdies before a mini wobble saw some of his approaches and putts just beginning to come up short and left. This would compound itself on 14 where a 9-iron left him short-sided and by the Ulsterman’s high standards, a poor chip would follow and his par attempt took a bobble just after impact, leading to his second bogey of the day.
McKibbin’s playing partner, Frenchman, David Ravetto would tee off on the 16th fairway on -4, the same score as the Northern Irishman. However following bogey on 16, calamity would strike on 17. Between losing balls, trees, rulings, clipped branches, and a bunker, the shell shocked Ravetto must have been wondering what had happened as he finally holed out for a nine on this costly par-5, to leave him at +1 through 17.
Tom McKibbin would avoid any such drama on 17 and another routine two-putt birdie took him back to -5 heading to 18 where he’d close out with another par for a 67 total.
“Yeah, very good start to the day,” McKibbin assessed the situation afterwards. “I sort of hit a few good shots and took advantage. Not too many loose ones wouldn’t say I felt my best out there, but somehow got, managed to get around in a good score.”
McKibbin feels that driving accuracy will be one of the key factors in deciding the winner this week and was happy that he was in fine form off the tee today.
“Yeah, it’s quite tight,” he said, “especially with the wind. It can sort of, the ball can get away from you and it’s quite tricky to hit the greens. Thankfully I drove it quite well, so I didn’t have too many fiddly shots within the trees, but it’s definitely a tricky if you start missing the fairways, not too far off and three rounds to go. Yeah, as I said, good sort of start three more days to sort of build on and, and then looking forward to it.”
McKibbin was among the late starters, but early Weetabix and stitching together two low nines were the order of the morning as the local contingent set the early pace in the altitude of Glendower.
Keenan Davidse led out the early bolters, having begun on 10 with a birdie, birdie start. Consistency would prove to be his key asset today, recording three more birdies to complete a bogey free opening nine in an impressive five-under, 31. He’d pick up three more on his second nine, leaving the 34-year-old sitting on top after an impressive opening eight-under 64 on to this morning’s receptive course.
Davidse would soon have company at the top of the leaderboard with Spain’s Ivan Cantero roaring up behind, whilst another phalanx of South African talent tie for second spot with Thriston Lawrence, Oliver Bekker and Louis De Jager all carding impressive -7 first round scores to keep the locals right in the mix in South Africa.
Leave a comment