Liam Nolan and South African golf courses look a match made in heaven and he leads the Irish charge heading into the weekend at the season-opening SDC Open on the HotelPlanner Tour.
Nolan, who finished third on debut here last year, shook off the rust of Thursday with a bogey-free 67 to move into a share of 31st place, six shots behind Frenchman Maxence Giboudot on five-under-par.
“It was good just very solid, got the ball in play off the tee and was leaving myself nice numbers so very happy. My par five scoring could have been better but I made up for it with some nice birdies on some tough par fours with tough pins,” said Nolan who birdied the 14th and 16th before shooting up the leaderboard with three birdies in four holes on the 3rd, 5th and 6th.
“Yesterday was rusty to say the least so it was nice to have a bogey-free round today so a couple more similar to that would be lovely.”
The Galway man burst onto the scene at Zebula Golf Estate & Spa last year and backed up his third place finish with a 4th place result the following week to give himself a platform to challenge for DP World Tour promotion. A regular in South Africa as an amateur with Golf Ireland teams, Nolan has a love affair with the style of golf.
“I don’t know what it is I would love to be able to put my finger on it. I said to my caddie (Sean Nohilly) on our 17th hole I just love it here. I don’t know what it is I think it is quite demanding you have to be able to shape the ball both ways. It really helps if you can strike the ball well and that plays into my game quite nicely so I was very happy with the round today.”
The 25-year-old made it all the way to the Rolex Grand Final in Alcanada last November but ultimately missed out on a DP World Tour card. His results tailed off in the second half of last season but he believes managing expectations when he doesn’t quite have his best game could be key to earning some extra points.
“Patience is huge. I have learned a few things just looking at the guys who got their DP World Tour cards what they do so trying to take a few nuggets off them and implement it into my own game. It’s more just patience and I got off to a great start last year but if you don’t get off to as good a start that’s OK because it’s such a long season we play until November so just enjoy the process and enjoy the grind.”
Meanwhile, Gary Hurley and Max Kennedy made the cut on the number on three-under-par. Hurley fired a very encouraging round of 69 and he will play all four rounds on his first competitive start in over a year.
Kennedy shot 72 as Conor Purcell’s brave 67 wasn’t enough to make the cut with his two-under total coming up a shot shy with Ronan Mullarney also missing out on plus one after a 72 of his own.
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