Porteous shows his true colours
PRETORIA: Red, white and blue ruled in the first round of the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club yesterday.
South Africa’s Haydn Porteous, armed with a red-hot putter and fancy blue and white shoes, posted a six-under-par 65 to share the lead with Gregory Havret, playing under the banner of the red, white and blue French flag, and Sweden’s Alexander Bjork. No red, white and blue for the Scandinavian but he certainly hit a purple patch with a bogey-free round.
And just behind the leading trio last night giving the tournament a truly international flavour were a handful of players from five different nations – Scotland’s Duncan Stewart, Finn Mikko Korhonen, Australia’s Ben Eccles, England’s Toby Tree and SA’s Justin Walters – all on 66.
“I hit a real dark patch on the European Tour last year and started to get negative about myself,” said 22-year-old Porteous.
“But my game seems to be coming back, and today was my third straight round without a bogey.
“I’m regaining my confidence, I’m seeing the lines on the greens and the putts are dropping, and on the tee I feel I can open my shoulders and let rip – and play like a kid again,” he said.
Like most of the players yesterday, Porteous was impressed with the condition of the course – and the challenge it sets.
“I don’t think I’ve seen fairways as good as this in Gauteng for a long time. And while this is not a particularly long layout, it’s so narrow and the rough is so penal that it’s got some serious teeth.”
Monsieur Havret agreed: “A course doesn’t have to be long to be scary. I’m not a long hitter but I do hit it straight, which is what you need to do here because the rough is very dangerous,” said the Frenchman, a veteran of 17 years on tour, who raced to the turn in just 29 strokes on the par-35 outward loop before playing the back nine in level-par figures.
“Today I was also wedging and putting well on an old fashioned-style course that I love.”
Bjork had a similar tale to relate: “I like it when you have to shape your shots and not just bomb it off the tee with (a) driver. Today I was solid off the tee, stayed well clear of the high rough and hit good irons and rolled it well on the greens.”
Walters is pleased to be showing form again after a couple of recent injuries, the latest one a neck problem which meant he had to withdraw from the pre-tournament pro-am earlier this week. And the six birdies he made yesterday – four of them on the trot from the 14th – not only boosted his score, but went to a good cause. A year ago he and Dean Burmester determined that for every birdie they make on tour, they will donate a sum of money – anything between R100 and R500 a birdie, depending on the tournament – to saving the rhino. And in 2016 they were able to contribute R140 000 to Mark Boucher’s initiative in this regard.
Stewart, who played college golf in the US, is playing in his first Tshwane Open and is a player making progress in the game after winning the Madrid Open on the Challenge Tour last year.
Eccles was bogey-free yesterday, Korhonen mixed seven birdies with a couple of drop shots, and Tree shot 33 on each nine.
Home favourite this week is George Coetzee, who won the 2015 Tshwane Open and has been a member at Pretoria CC for 20 years – winning a number of club championships on the course as a junior and amateur.
He signed for a three-under yesterday that included seven birdies but also two doublebogey sixes, at the first and 13 holes. Peter Karmis blitzed his opening nine – holes 10-18 – in just 30 strokes, but was two over coming home to shoot 67.