Young Scot leads the way at Sanlam SA Amateur Champs
Scotland’s Daniel Young opened with a six-under-par 66 to lead the first round of qualifying in the Sanlam South African Amateur Championship at Hermanus Golf Club on Sunday.
An early eagle on the par-five second carried Young to an eventual lead three shots clear of Pretoria Country Club’s Rosswell Sinclair, with Tristen Strydom, Jovan Rebula and Hendrik du Plessis all finishing the day in joint third on two under.
“It was a good round of golf. I played nicely and stuck to my game plan pretty much throughout the day and hit a lot of good iron shots. And I obviously rolled in a couple of putts which was nice,” said Young.
“It was a course that suited my game. The greens were running perfectly so you could make some putts. So I figured I just needed to give myself a few chances.”
Young’s eagle on the second gave his round some early momentum. “I hit a nice drive down the fairway and it was a good second shot that set it up. It was a tough flag, tucked back right but I hit a nice second shot right into the heart of the green and fortunately the putt fell in.”
Defending champion Thriston Lawrence had a tough day in which he struggled to a four-over-par 76.
“I didn’t feel the pressure at all,” he said afterwards. “I played well today – I just made two mistakes with two double bogeys. I’m happy with my game but hopefully I’ll play better tomorrow. I won’t be changing much. I’m hitting the ball well so hopefully I’ll just keep up with my gameplan and roll in a few putts.”
South Africa’s number one ranked amateur, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, finished the day in joint sixth spot with a 71. “It was good out there. I played really well. I hit some greens but didn’t make too many putts. But I played decent, solid golf so I’m happy about the round.”
The second round of qualifying takes place on Monday. On conclusion of the qualifier, the 64 leading players go into a main match play competition.
Leading Scores (players South African unless stated):
66 – Daniel Young (SCO)
69 – Rosswell Sinclair
70 – Tristen Strydom, Jovan Rebula, Hendrik du Plessis
71 – Johan Germishuys, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Rupert Kaminski, James du Preez, Andrew Carlsson, Scott Gibson(SCO), Clayton Mansfield, Tom Watson
72 – Robert Bougas (Jnr), N J Arnoldi, Weyers Janse van Rensburg, Marco Steyn, Henri van Waart
73 – Graeme Fransman (NAM), Heinri Germishuys, Ewen Ferguson(SCO), Jamie Savage(SCO), Cameron Moralee, Gregory Royston, Paul Boshoff, Armandt Scholtz, Allan Lones, Zander Lombard.
Issued on behalf of the Sanlam SA Amateur Championship by Michael Vlismas Media.