Birdie blitz sees Oosthuizen take SA Open lead

He said he had his doubts about how many birdies could be made on the Bushwillow course at Randpark Golf Club, but after nine of them in his opening round of the South African Open Championship hosted by City of Joburg, Louis Oosthuizen doubted no more.

The 2010 Open champion fired a bogey-free opening nine-under-par 63 to lead the tournament played over Bushwillow and Firethorn courses for the first two rounds ahead of the weekend which will see action exclusively on Firethorn by one stroke over Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya and Kurt Kitiyama of the United States.

“I was remembering that I said yesterday I wondered how there was a 61 on Bushwillow last year,” laughed Oosthuizen. “It was a strange round. There were a lot of holes that with a driver downwind, you can really get it close to the greens. There were quite a few holes where you had less than 70 yards in the whole time. If you feel like you’re putting nicely, you can definitely score there.”

Oosthuizen spent his round in the company of Matt Wallace, the English world number 44 who is back in action after his share of fifth in the Nedbank Golf Challenge and of second in the DP World Tour Championship. He carded a six-under 65. And the top-ranked pair in the field put on quite a show for the fans.

“Matt and I at one stage – I made a putt and then he made a putt and we were neck and neck the whole time up until 13 where he made bogey,” said Oosthuizen. It’s nice when two of the guys in the group play well. I played with Matt at Sun City in the Nedbank, actually. He’s a great player. He’s had an unbelievable season and he’s going to win many many more.”

Wallace also enjoyed himself. “It was fun playing with Louis,” he said. “Near the end there, he was outside me, and I was inside, and he holes them and I was like, this is like match play now, I need to make this. I missed one on 16 and then made one on 17. I was pretty happy with that. I’ll take the positives from today and go again tomorrow.”

Muthiya managed to put the disappointment of missing the cut in last week’s AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open behind him with an opening 29 on Bushwillow in a flawless display. “I did get the feeling a good performance was looming,” he said. “I played exceptionally well in Mauritius and missed the cut by one. I looked at that and learnt from those errors and just build on the positive things I did last week.”

Kitiyama, on the other hand, was the champion in Mauritius, and had to deal with that experience in a different way. “Last week in Mauritius was mentally very draining, trying to stay calm and hold that lead for the entire last round,” he said. “It definitely took a toll coming into this week. I decided to play only nine holes on Wednesday because I just wanted to rest up. Tomorrow when I play Bushwillow we’ll see if resting helped me.”

Zander Lombard pulled off the second-best round of the day on Firethorn behind Kitiyama with his seven-under-par 64 which included a bogey on his first hole, and the South African found himself in fourth.

Back on five-under, but very handily placed, were Ernie Els and Branden Grace together with fellow South Africans Davis McIntyre, Jake Roos and Jbe’ Kruger, as well as Brazil’s Adilson Da Silva and three other players.

Oosthuizen feels he has an important bit of the tournament behind him now. “I’m pleased to be in the lead by three, but there’s a long way to go,” he said. “I’ve got one of the courses out of the way, so now I just focus on the main course for the week and it feels like a new tournament starting tomorrow for me.”

Scores:

62 - Louis Oosthuizen

63 - Madalitso Muthiya, Kurt Kitayama

64 - Zander Lombard

65 - Matt Wallace, Tyrone Ferreira, Mark Williams

66 - David McIntyre, Max Schmitt, Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Jake Roos, Jbe' Kruger, Adilson Da Silva, Tom Murray, Marcel Siem

67 - Gregory Havret, Bernd Ritthammer, Stuart Manley, Thomas Aiken, Dean Burmester, Jovan Rebula, Anthony Michael, Matthew Jordan, Pedro Figueiredo, Charl Schwartzel

68 - Ben Evans, Bryce Easton, Eirik Tage Johansen, Jake Redman, Henric Sturehed, Matias Calderon, Callum Shinkwin, Jack Harrison, Ryan Cairns, Anton Haig, Kalle Samooja, Marc Warren, Haydn Porteous, Jarin Todd, Jeff Winther, Merrick Bremner, Per Langfors, Duncan Stewart, Martin Wiegele

69 - Ewen Ferguson, David Lipsky, Vaughn Groenewald, Justin Harding, Romain Langasque, Guido Migliozzi, Dawie Van der Walt, Alex Haindl, Kristoffer Reitan, Matthew Nixon, Marcel Schneider, Wilco Nienaber, Daniel van Tonder, Austin Connelly, Tapio Pulkkanen, Hennie Otto

70 - David Borda, Thriston Lawrence, Stephen Ferreira, JJ Senekal, Robert Macintyre, Joachim B. Hansen, Justin Walters, Jacques Kruyswijk, Chris Paisley, Robert Karlsson, Ivan Cantero Gutierrez, Niklas Lemke, Paul Peterson, Gregory Bourdy, Rhys West, Dimitrios Papadatos, Michiel Bothma, Shaun Norris, Joel Girrbach, Michael Hollick, Daniel Greene, Adrien Saddier, Yubin Jung, John Catlin, Trevor Fisher Jnr, Jaco Van Zyl, Deon Germishuys, Jacques Blaauw, Carlos Pigem, CJ du Plessis, Yikeun Chang, Michael Palmer, Mitch Waite

71 - Duane Keun, Nicholaus Frade, Joseph Dean, Andre Nel, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, George Coetzee, Keith Horne, Heinrich Bruiners, Ockie Strydom, Sean Crocker, Steve Surry, Yanwei Liu, Simon Forsstrom, Baejong Park, Desne Van Den Bergh, Callum Mowat, Colin Nel, Steven Brown, Louis de Jager, Jaco Ahlers, Matthieu Pavon, Garth Mulroy, Brandon Stone, Pablo Larrazabal, Bernd Wiesberger, Ross McGowan, Miguel Angel Carballo

72 - Lorenzo Gagli, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Darren Fichardt, Laurie Canter, MJ Viljoen, Jeunghun Wang, Ryan Evans, Ruan de Smidt, Neil Schietekat, Andre De Decker, Steven Lecuyer, Deyen Lawson, Roberto Lupini, Minkyu Kim, Grant Forrest, Jose-Filipe Lima, Jack Senior, Sebastian Soderberg, Titch Moore, Christo Lamprecht, Trevor Immelman, Lyle Rowe, Jared Harvey, Scott Vincent, Clement Sordet, Ruan Conradie, Ruan Korb

73 - Jaco Prinsloo, Christiaan Basson, David Drysdale, Keenan Davidse, Max Orrin, Musiwalo Nethunzwi, Louis Albertse, Toto Thimba, Keelan Africa, Francois Coetzee, Alexander Knappe, Rhys Enoch, Wynand Dingle, Connor Syme, Jean-Paul Strydom, Matteo Manassero, Rourke van der Spuy, Hennie du Plessis, Alejandro Canizares, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano, Dylan Frittelli, Richard Sterne, Wallie Coetsee, Chris Cannon, Oliver Wilson, Breyten Meyer, Fezekile Kana, Yurav Premlall

74 - Dean O'Riley, Jabulane Mabilane, Daniel Gavins, Filippo Bergamaschi, Herman Loubser, Jack Singh Brar, Khalin Joshi, Andrew Curlewis, Pieter Moolman, Allister de Kock, Edoardo Molinari, Oliver Farr, Chikkarangappa S, Scott Gregory

75 - Gavin Moynihan, Casey O'Toole, Luke Jerling, Hyowon Park, Nick Cullen, Philip Eriksson, Christofer Blomstrand, David Gleeson, Malcolm Kokocinski, Espen Kofstad, Viraj Madappa, Riekus Nortje, Derick Petersen, Kim Koivu, Fredrik From, Michael Hoey, James Kamte, Bryce Myburgh, Franklin Manchest, Leon Visser, Borja Virto

76 - Neil O'Briain, Scott Jamieson, Lionel Weber, Chase Koepka, Mathias Gronberg, Marco Iten, Bowen Xiao, Kyle Pilgrim, Morten Orum Madsen, Liam Johnston

77 - Altaaf Bux

78 - Kyle Barker, Marthin Scheepers, Makhetha Mazibuko, Tyrone Ryan, Masahiro Kawamura, Jean Hugo, Doug McGuigan, Kristian Krogh Johannessen

79 - Jake Higginbottom, Luke Joy, Ulrich van den Berg

80 - Jonathan Agren, Berry Henson, Matt Saulez, Marc Cayeux, Conway Kunneke, Cameron Moralee

81 - Pavit Tangkamolprasert

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