SERGIO SURGES AHEAD AT SUN CITY

Garcia dominates field as he puts Sun City to the sword

SERGIO Garcia “rolled the ball nicely” to storm to a blemish-free 64 and lead the Nedbank Challenge by four strokes yesterday.

He birdied the first hole of the day in a sign of things to come, and then twice reeled off three birdies in a row – between nine and 11, and again from 15 to 17 – to finish four shots clear of Finn Miko Korhonen, Mike Lorenzo-Vera of France and local man Charl Schwartzel.

“I felt great,” said Garcia afterwards. “I rolled the ball nicely. I made some good putts here and there. One of those rounds where things kind of happened nicely to me. I think I played very smart. I probably wasn’t swinging unbelievably, but I kept it under control. I kept the ball in play all the time, which is difficult to do here.”

For Garcia, being able to read the swirling winds around a course situated in a bowl of mountains was key.

“I managed to guess some of the winds here right. That is very, very difficult, and you know, when you can do that here, it’s nice to be able to shoot a score like I did. This is not a golf course that plays easy when it’s a little bit breezy like it was today. When it swirls, it’s even tougher.”

On a day on which many of the big names found trouble at least once or twice during the round – favourite Rory McIlroy made two bogeys and a double – Garcia’s performance was all the more impressive. He didn’t try to overpower the course.

“It’s very important to keep the ball in play as much as possible here and that’s what I was trying to do when I didn’t feel comfortable with the driver,” he said. “If it got too narrow, I hit something less than that and tried to play the hole maybe a little bit tougher. It worked out well.

“I managed to keep the ball in play nicely. I hit a lot of greens, which is important to do here with the little spots that you can put the pins in, and I managed to roll some nice putts.”

His putting was certainly impressive, particularly on nine and 11. On nine, he rolled in a 35-footer for eagle, and his birdie putt on 11 hit the hole at speed to go in.

“Obviously they are not the kind of putts that you expect to make,” he said, “but when you give yourself a lot of chances, obviously your possibilities of making them are a little bit bigger and I was able to roll in three or four really nice putts.”

Behind Garcia, Lorenza-Vera was bogey-free for his 68, while Korhonen and Schwartzel each dropped just once.

A further stroke back on 69 was a group of six players, which included South Africa’s 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen. He got off to a fast start and was four-under after seven, but a bogey at eight seemed to unsettle him and he made just one more birdie and another bogey on his way home.

Defending champion Branden Grace carded a two-under 70 to find himself six off the pace.

While Garcia’s lead seems big, he of all people knows it’s not insurmountable.

“It’s still the first day,” he said. “There’s still a lot of golf to be played and a lot of tough days to come around. It’s nice to start like that, but I’m not going to lie, there’s still a lot of golf to be played.”