Sam Bairstow (left) and Fredrik From. (CREDIT: Sunshine Tour)
DURBAN (KwaZulu-Natal) – England’s Sam Bairstow and Sweden’s Fredrik From were simply delighted to be able to tee off their first rounds of the Investec South African Open, never mind share the clubhouse lead by the end of the first day at Durban Country Club on Thursday.
It required a monumental effort by the course maintenance staff and the eThekwini Municipality to take what was a waterlogged golf course following a deluge of rain the day before, and work through the night for an almost miraculous transformation of this layout, with only a three hour delay of the tee times.
Bairstow and From took full advantage and opened with rounds of seven-under-par 65 to lead, while South Africa’s Darren Fichardt was also on seven under with four holes to play when darkness forced a suspension of play. The delayed start means the first round will have to be completed on Friday morning, with play scheduled to resume at 08:00.
South Africa’s Jayden Schaper, Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, India’s Shubhankar Sharma, China’s Haotong Li and England’s Todd Clements all finished the day on six under par.
But for Bairstow and From, and indeed every professional in the field, it was a miracle that they could even tee off on Thursday.
“The day before I thought there would be no chance of playing, especially seeing the water on 16th hole. But all credit to the maintenance staff for getting the course playable. They did an unbelievable job,” said Bairstow.
“I couldn’t believe it this morning when they didn’t call it off, to be honest. They must have worked the whole night pumping hundreds of thousands of litres of water. They did a great job,” added From.
Both players did well to drop only one shot in their rounds, while From added two eagles during his 65 on the par-five third and 10th holes.
“I hit them both pretty close so it wasn’t too much work. My driver was working very well and it’s the kind of golf course where a good driving game can give you opportunities,” said the man who plays under a Swedish flag but who feels entirely at home in South Africa having spent so many years competing on the Sunshine Tour.
“It’s like I’m representing two flags here this week. For that reason it would be great to win,” he said.
Behind them, Ramsay has put himself in a great position to claim a second Investec South African Open title following his triumph in 2009.
And Schaper has also made a strong claim on this title following a few close finishes in the past. He finished tied sixth while still an amateur in the 2020 Investec South African Open, and also had finishes of tied ninth in 2022 and tied fifth in 2023.
“I’ve got a lot of good memories in this tournament. It’s just one that you want to do well in as our home Open, and this is a great venue for it this week,” said Schaper.
Bryan Newman and Christiaan Maas are currently the leading amateurs on one under par but still to complete their first rounds.
SCORES - INCOMPLETE ROUND
-7 - Sam Bairstow, Fredrik From, Darren Fichardt [14]
-6 - Richie Ramsay, Shubhankar Sharma, Jayden Schaper, Haotong Li, Todd Clements
-5 - Justin Harding, Joost Luiten [13], Jacques Blaauw [10], Keith Horne [9], Jordan Gumberg [9]
-4 - Marco Penge, Ivan Cantero, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Nikhil Rama, Martin Couvra, JJ Senekal, Gregorio De Leo, Jamie Donaldson, Joel Girrbach, Kazuma Kobori [15], Maximilian Steinlechner [14], Marcel Siem [13], Branden Grace [8], John Parry [8]
-3 - JC Ritchie, Nicolas Colsaerts, MJ Viljoen, Dean Burmester, Laurie Canter, Dylan Frittelli, Oliver Lindell, Aaron Cockerill, Jens Dantorp, Troy Merritt [15], Andrea Pavan [13], Richard Sterne [13], Yurav Premlall [12], Zander Lombard [12]
-2 - Rhys West, Gavin Green, Kieran Vincent, Freddy Schott, Malcolm Mitchell, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia [14], Jean Hugo [13], Jaco Ahlers [12], George Coetzee [10], Thomas Aiken [10], David Ravetto [10], Ryan Van Velzen [9], Brandon Stone [9], Shaun Norris [9], Jaco Van Zyl [9], Jacques P de Villiers [7], Kyle McClatchie [7], Keelan van Wyk [6]
-1 - Deon Germishuys, Brandon Wu, Matthew Baldwin, Heinrich Bruiners, Stefan Wears-Taylor, Jacques Kruyswijk, Andy Sullivan, Luke Jerling [15], Nathan Kimsey [15], Callum Tarren [15], Bryan Newman [15], Jeong Weon Ko [13], Christiaan Maas [10], Jorge Campillo [8], Connor Syme [7], Keenan Davidse [7]
Par - Jordan Burnand, Scott Jamieson, Sentanio Minnie, Kyle Barker, Sean Crocker, Oliver Bekker, Robin Williams, Charl Schwartzel, Wilco Nienaber, Tom Vaillant [15], Kayle Wykes [15], Dylan Naidoo [13], Peter Karmis [13], Richard Mansell [12], Benjamin Follett-Smith [12], Stephen Ferreira [11], Dale Whitnell [11], Ugo Coussaud [9], Bjorn Akesson [9], Romain Langasque [8], Keagan Thomas [8], Casey Jarvis [7], Jordan Duminy [7], Charl Barnard [7]
+1 - Toto Thimba Jnr, CJ du Plessis, Ulrich van den Berg, Astin Arthur, Joel Moscatel, Adrian Otaegui, Brandon Meads [15], Jonathan Broomhead [14], Louis de Jager [11], Martin Rohwer [11], Michael Hollick [11], Dan Bradbury [10], Lyle Rowe [7], Manuel Elvira [7], Thanda Mavundla [6]
+2 - Martin Vorster, Herman Loubser, Ethan Smith, Rupert Kaminski, Chris Paisley, Alejandro Del Rey, Hennie Otto, Simon Forsstrom, Combrinck Smit, Franklin Manchest, Ruan Korb [15], Ryggs Johnston [14], Rhys Enoch [13], Ricardo Gouveia [12], Pieter Moolman [9], Johannes Veerman [8], Daniel van Tonder [8], Jovan Rebula [7], Johan Theron [6]
+3 - Quintin Wilsnach, Kristoffer Reitan, Sean Paxton, Ross Fisher [11], Louis Albertse [9], Angel Ayora [7]
+4 - Mikael Lindberg, Francesco Laporta, Matthias Schwab [10], Calum Hill [10]
+5 - Neil Schietekat, Adrien Saddier
+6 - Jack Hawksby, Trevor Fisher Jnr, Jean-Paul Strydom
+7 - Joshua Berry [14]
+8 - Matthew Spacey, Albert Venter [13]
+10 - Dylan Mostert, Gerhard Pepler
+11 - Roson Chinhoi [13]
+12 - Steven Le Roux
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