Kim leads South Africans in Turkey
Manager Erica Lefson reports from Antlaya.
“Kim started her first round playing really solid golf with a birdie on the second hole, dropped two shots and turned one over. Solid golf continued until 17 where she dropped a shot and again dropped on 18th to finish 75.
“On day two, Kim started with a birdie and then seemed lose her rhythm – not made easy by the greens being totally unforgiving so putts were not dropping – ending with a 79. After lying seventh yesterday Kim is now in eighth place on a day when everyone struggled.
“Ashleigh is striking the ball well but not scoring around the greens. After a rocky start yesterday on the first nine (42) she came back one under 34 to shoot a 76. Today she was not in trouble off the fairways and was striking the ball really well – but had bad luck and again got caught around the greens – ended with a 81 and is lying 14th.
“This is Yvette du Plessis’s first trip overseas and she struggled on day one. She was pulling most of her shots and could not get her putts in the hole – ended up with a 83. Round two did not go much better in terms of the score but she was striking the ball much better. Yvette finished with a 83 and is lying 24th.
“The girls went off last in rounds one and two and go off early today when it is at least a bit cooler – we are hoping for better scores – which we know everyone of the them can shoot.
“We are staying at the Gloria Golf Resort – beautiful hotel and apartments on the water with pools and bars – must have over a 1000 rooms. The event is being played at the Gloria golf course which has two courses – we are playing on the old course. The course has water and thousands of pine trees that line most of the fairways – this is the tightest course I have ever seen – miss the fairway and know that you will have some tree in your way. There is not really any rough, a few bushes water and then the trees!
“The temperature is about 30 at midday so hot and one needs to keep hydrated. The greens are tricky – they have nap and are difficult to read. And again not sure why they do it but the pins are put in some really tricky positions – especially on day two. The course is really long for the ladies and on most par fours they still have at least 150 metres in. Also, because of the narrow fairways it is difficult to use a driver.”
Johan Bekker was unfortunately ill on the eve of the first round and spent five hours at an emergency clinic. He was really not well enough to pull his cart in the heat of the day so Erica caddied for him.
“Being a caddy gave me a real birds eye view of the course and greens. Johan did well but having not eaten and being a bit weak, he battled on the back nine where he dropped most of his shots to shoot 78. He carded a 76 with no birdies in round two and is currently lying 42nd.
“Coenie Bester started round one with an eight on the first and struggled to get going – finally settled and carded a 79 followed with a 78 in round two and is lying 50th.”