Bezuidenhout shares lead with five others at SA Open

Christiaan Bezuidenhout opened with a five-under-par 67 to place him in a six-way tie for the first-round lead of the SA Open as he chases back-toback victories on the Sunshine Tour and the European Tour’s South African Swing.

The winner of last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship picked up where he left off at Leopard Creek as he made six birdies and only one bogey at the Gary Player Country Club yesterday.

He to joined fellow South Africans Dean Burmester, Jacques Kruyswijk and Ruan Korb as well as Austria’s Matthias Schwab and Italian Aron Zemmer in the lead.

I got off to a nice start and turned five under par, then I birdied my 10th hole to get to six under,” Bezuidenhout, who teed off the 10th, said.

But with the nines swapped for this tournament, he faced the more difficult nine as his second nine, and this was compounded by a strong wind which seemed to also put a chill on his putter.

“The putter just went cold. I just couldn’t make the putts coming in,” he said.

The wind also picked up, which made it more tricky.

Schwab played with Bezuidenhout and said he had fed off the South African’s fast start on the first nine.

I just tried to keep up with him.

Then it got a little bit windy and I just kept the score together coming in.”

The leaders are one stroke clear of Frenchman Matthieu Pavon and SA’s Dylan Frittelli.

GolfRSA’s Casey Jarvis and Christiaan Maas both made strong claims for the Freddie Tait trophy as they each opened with rounds of oneover-par 73.