Round one of the Sunshine Tour’s Vodacom Origins in South Africa got underway on Friday with Dublin’s Rowan Lester and Mullingar’s Liam Grehan amongst the field.
Lester, who posted a one-over-par first round sees himself in a tie for 74th as the 29-year-old was unlucky not to fully avail of his accurate iron play to get into the red figures.
An early birdie came on the par-5 second hole before another came on the par-4 sixth. This would be the last birdie of Lester’s round.
Lester followed up his birdie with a bogey on the par-4 seventh, before finishing poorly with back-to-back bogeys on 16 and 17.
It was a rollercoaster round for Grehan who went bogey-eagle-double on the first three holes.
Grehan began to settle as he finished up his first nine holes, but a poor start to the back nine seemed to have hindered his chances of a low round.
Grehan made birdie on the par-3 13th, before a disastrous end to his round.
Back-to-back bogeys came on the 15th and 16th and a double followed on 17. Grehan couldn’t limit the damage as another bogey came on the last as he posted a six-over-par round to sit T113 heading into round two.
At the other end of the leaderboard, South Africa’s Zander Lombard takes the 18-hole leader as the 30-year-old posted a seven-under-par round to take a two-shot lead.
Lombard only returned to competitive golf in February this year following a near 10-month layoff after a knee injury and surgery.
But on a magnificent day in the Cape winelands, he looked quite at home at the top of the leaderboard following a round that featured an albatross on the par-5 11th.
“The albatross definitely boosted the round. It was such a perfect three wood hit just straight at the flag and which landed about nine metres short of the flag and trickled in. It was cool to see. It’s not every day that happens, and it’s great to have happened on day one of this tournament,” he said.
He leads by two strokes over Altin van der Merwe, and with a strong group of players including Keenan Davidse, George Coetzee, Stephen Ferreira and Yurav Premlall all just three strokes off the lead.
“Since I had my 10 months off with my knee injury it’s been weird. I’ve been lacking a bit of consistency. But I’ve always felt like I’ve been playing well and just not scoring,” said the South African.
“To have a low round and get that confidence up, and to see the ball going in the hole and posting a good score is really nice. It seems like it’s all coming together at the right time now towards the end of the year and with some big tournaments to come,” he added.
Lombard’s lone Sunshine Tour victory came at the Vodacom Origins of Golf series in 2018.
Leave a comment