Stevens makes great start in Jakarta
South Africa’s Symone Henriques and Caitlyn Mcnab launch their Ciputra Enjoy Jakarta World Junior Golf Championship campaign today, while Cole Stevens and Hilmi Mallick take aim in round two of the Boys Competitions at the Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) Course at Damai Inda Golf in Indonesia.
“Symone and Caitlyn spent the day in the practice areas, working on their chipping and putting skills in preparation for the tough pin positions and they are champing at the bit to get going today,” said Womens Golf South Africa vice-president Sally Greasley.
“Cole and Hilmi both stated that they started poorly and finished poorly, but I think they were very hard on themselves. The conditions were very humid, the greens were extremely fast and it was really difficult to stop the ball, particularly any downhill putts.”
Gauteng’s Stevens finished fourth in the Boys B Competition for ages 13 – 14 after carding a five-over-par 77. The Parkview player is three off the pace from the joint leaders Dominikus Glenn from Indonesia and Saurav from India.
Mallick opened with a 79 and has a lot of work to do to catch up to the leader in the Boys A Competition for 15 – 17 year olds. The Rondebosch junior will start the second round 10 shots behind Thailand’s Atiruj Winaicharoenchai.
Stevens pulled his iron shot into a hazard and started the round with a bogey. He settled down with four successive pars and made a superb eagle-three at the par five sixth after a brilliant tee shot and great approach shot to the green.
“Unfortunately Cole bogeyed the seventh, but turned level par,” Greasley said. “He was disappointed with the back nine after picking up only one birdie, but still finished well within striking distance of the leaders.
“Hilmi started with a double bogey at the 10th, but followed with a birdie at 11. Two more bogeys took him to the turn in three over, and he struggled on his back nine. Hilmi offset bogeys at 10, 12 and 16 with a birdie at the par four 12th for his 77.
“His biggest problem was wayward drives, and shortsiding himself by missing greens. Hopefully things will go better for him today. With the forecast of temperatures in the high 30s and humidity of 90%, it promises to be a testing day but all four players are enjoying the experience and looking forward to Wednesday’s play.”
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Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the South African Golf Association and Womens Golf South Africa.