SA off to bad start in title defence

Ryan Dreyer (75) and Daniel Hammond (79) find themselves fourteen shots off the pace after the first round of the Juan Carlos Tailhade Cup which was played on Thursday.

This was a bad start in the International Team Tournament, in which both players’ scores count, for the defending champions in the 72 hole stroke play competition which also includes an individual tournament.

This is the thirty ninth staging of the annual amateur golf tournament which takes place at the Los Lagartos Country Club just outside Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Andrew Sullivan, of England, shot a pace setting 67, four under par, to lead the individual competition by two. Along with his fellow countryman Neil Raymond (73), England lead the team event with a first round score of 140, two under par.

Two shots back, on 142, are Finland followed, a further one shot back, by Norway.

“We really struggled today,” said Ryan Dreyer, after his round, in a telephonic interview.

Dreyer, starting on the tenth tee, went out 38, three over par. “I started badly, being two over par after three holes. I got it back to two under par,” said Dreyer who birdied the sixth hole, his fifteenth of the day. But this was all undone when he double bogeyed the second last hole he played to come home in 37, one over par, and finish tied in thirty ninth place in the individual competition.

Of his playing partner, Dreyer said that he had started nervously, “It was a big occasion for Daniel, representing his country for the first time and also starting with the added pressure of being the defending champions.”

Daniel Hammond bogeyed the first two holes he played, doing the same on another two holes along with a double bogey on his seventh hole (the sixteenth) to go out in 41, six over par.

The Wanderers Golf Club player played a bit better on his second nine where he recorded three bogeys and a birdie to come home in 38, two over par. Hammond is tied in seventy ninth place in the individual competition.

“We have made things difficult for ourselves,” is how the thirty eight year old golfer from Killarney Country Club, in Central Gauteng, summed up his team’s position and what is now required in order to successfully defend the title he and JG Claassen won last year.

The South Africans tee off at 12h30 (Hammond) and 12h40 (Dreyer), from the first tee, and are paired with the two players from Australia.

The final round will be played on Sunday.

Juan Tailhade Cup

Los Lagartos Country Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Par: 71

First Round Leading Scores in Individual Competition

67 – Andrew Sullivan (ENG)

69 – Patricio Salem (PER), Scott Salmon (ESP), Juan Hernandez (MEX)

70 – Ary Rodriquez (ARG), Espen Kofstad (NOR), Juan Alvarez (URU), Leandro Marelli (ARG), Apio Pulkkanen (FIN)

South African Players Scores:

75 – Ryan Dreyer

79 – Daniel Hammond.

First Round Results in International Team Competition (Par: 142)

140 – England (Andrew Sullivan 67, Neil Raymond 73)

142 – Finland (Tapio Pulkkanen 70, Miro Veijalaninen 72)

143 – Norway (Espen Kofstad 70, Elias Bertheussen 73)

144 – Spain

145 – Uruguay

146 – Colombia

148 – Netherlands

149 – Argentina, New Zealand

150 – Australia

151 – Canada

152 – Italy, Portugal

154 – South Africa (Ryan Dreyer 75, Daniel Hammond 79)