Oosthuizen earns early ‘advantage’ at SA Open

Kitayama in excellent position

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 6, (RTRS): Home favourite Louis Oosthuizen wielded a red-hot putter to bag six birdies on his back nine and card an opening round 62 for a one-shot lead at the European Tour’s South African Open on Thursday.

Oosthuizen’s faultless round included nine birdies and he leads from Zambian Madalitso Muthiya and last weekend’s winner at the Mauritius Open, American Kurt Kitayama, who both carded eightunder-par rounds of 63.

Oosthuizen and Muthiya played on the shorter Bushwillow Course at the Randpark Golf Club, which saw most of the low scoring on Thursday, while Kitayama teed off on the more formidable Firethorn Course to put himself into an excellent position.

Oosthuizen has never won his national Open championship before but is the highest-ranked player in this year’s field and has some form after finishing in third place at the Nedbank Challenge last month.

Having turned at three under par, his superb approach to the 11th set up a second birdie in succession on the back nine, which turned into a hat-trick on the parfive 12th.

He managed further gains at 14, 16 and 17 for his lowest round on tour since the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

“My game’s good, it’s trending in the direction I want it to be,” Oosthuizen told reporters earlier in the week.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to really be where I want it to be but I’ve been doing a lot of different things with my coach and