Europeans dominate day one of SDC Championship

It wasn’t the gale-force wind that was predicted, but it was windy enough that both Frenchman David Ravetto and Norway’s Kristian Krogh Johannessen were extremely pleased with their opening 67s for a share the first round clubhouse lead in the SDC Championship at St Francis Links on Thursday.

Their rounds of five under par earned them a one-stroke lead over Scotland’s Connor Syme in this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned tournament. The round was suspended at 18:35 due to fading light and will resume on Friday morning before the start of the second round.

The field had been waiting for this wind since Tuesday. While St Francis Links locals would’ve called it a standard wind for their golf course, it certainly caught the attention of the professionals on day one. Only 30 players in the field of 156 managed to shoot below par on Thursday.

Ravetto, though, called it “fun”. “This is a really nice golf course and it needs the wind to play to its potential. It’s fun to play it in the wind with a couple of nice tee shots and second shots,” he said of a day where his biggest challenge was the wake-up call for a 6:30am tee time.

“The wake-up call was pretty hard, but I played really solid golf in the windy conditions. My putting was really solid compared to the past few weeks.”

Johannessen was equally pleased with his bogey-free round. “I’m very happy. I started on the 10th and that nine suits my eye a bit more. The front nine can be tough. But overall I managed to score well. You have to be patient here when it blows. It all comes down to the weather and you need to just keep your ball in play.”

Behind them, Scotland’s Syme felt somewhat at home this far south in Africa. “The wind switched 180 degrees and it was like playing a different course today compared to what we had in the practice rounds. But I used my experience from Scotland hitting low drives and punch shots into the wind. Overall I made a few mistakes but I also made a lot of good birdies out there. I was in a lot of good positions off the tee. So much so that my bogeys felt quite sloppy, even though you’re going to make mistakes out there. I drove it well and that’s the main challenge of this golf course.”

Sean Cronje is the leading South African following his opening round of three under par 69. – Michael Vlismas

Incomplete Scores:
-5 – David Ravetto, Kristian Krogh Johannessen
-4 – Connor Syme
-3 – Sean Cronje, Nick Bachem, Joost Luiten, Martin Simonsen, Julien Brun
-2 – Daniel Brown, Louis Albertse, Alexander Levy, Matthew Baldwin, Albert Venter, Sami Valimaki, Benjamin Follett-Smith
-1 – Justin Harding, John Catlin, Zander Lombard, Mateusz Gradecki, Ross Fisher, JC Ritchie, Louis de Jager, Ruan Korb, Todd Clements, James Kamte, David Law, Darren Fichardt, Robin Sciot-Siegrist, Jaco Prinsloo [16], Merrick Bremner [15]
Par – Brandon Stone, Ewen Ferguson, Adri Arnaus, Thriston Lawrence, Hennie O’Kennedy, Stefan Wears-Taylor, Jeff Winther, Gavin Green, Keenan Davidse, Philip Eriksson, Darius van Driel, Robin Williams, George Coetzee, Oliver Bekker, Antoine Rozner, Lukas Nemecz, Jean Hugo, Andy Sullivan, Thomas Aiken
+1 – Pedro Figueiredo, Dylan Mostert, Casey Jarvis, Ryo Hisatsune, Jordan Smith, John Parry, Anton Karlsson, Julien Guerrier, Hennie Otto, Trevor Fisher Jnr, Neil Schietekat, Jake Redman, Gerard du Plooy, Luca Filippi, Dale Whitnell, Richie Ramsay, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Kalle Samooja, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen, Jbe’ Kruger, John Axelsen [15], Keelan van Wyk [15]
+2 – Hurly Long, Daan Huizing, Nacho Elvira, Alexander Knappe, Yeongsu Kim, Adilson Da Silva, CJ du Plessis, Jaco Van Zyl, Hennie du Plessis, Shaun Norris, Jens Dantorp, Matthew Southgate, Bryce Easton [15], Allister de Kock [15]
+3 – Rupert Kaminski, Manu Gandas, Oliver Wilson, Adrian Otaegui, Maximilian Kieffer, Wilco Nienaber, Stephen Ferreira, Deon Germishuys, Matthieu Pavon, Dylan Naidoo, Ockie Strydom, Daniel van Tonder, Luke Brown, Martin Rohwer
+4 – Calum Hill, James Morrison, Lyle Rowe, Clement Sordet, Jeong Weon Ko, Niklas Norgaard, Jayden Schaper, Heinrich Bruiners, Romain Langasque, Tom McKibbin, Combrinck Smit
+5 – Tapio Pulkkanen, JJ Senekal, Matthew Jordan, Ryan Van Velzen, Rhys West, Tristen Strydom, Daniel Gavins, Jacques Blaauw, Joachim B. Hansen, Aaron Cockerill, Kyle Barker, James Mack [17], Johannes Veerman [16], Rourke van der Spuy [16], Herman Loubser [15]
+6 – Alex Haindl, Aneurin Gounden, Marcel Schneider, Jaco Ahlers, Luke Jerling, Ruan Conradie [17], Michael Palmer [15]
+7 – Jamie Donaldson, Dan Bradbury, Tobias Eden, Ma Chengyao, Wil Besseling, Mikko Korhonen, Pieter Moolman, Mikael Lindberg, Keagan Thomas [17]
+8 – Freddy Schott, Justin Walters, Anthony Michael, Wynand Dingle, Shubhankar Sharma, Yurav Premlall [15]
+9 – Alejandro Del Rey, Estiaan Conradie, Franklin Manchest
+11 – Oliver Hundeboll, Jacques Kruyswijk
+12 – Reinhardt Blaauw, Jeremy Freiburghaus, James Hart du Preez
RTD – Jacquin Hess [9]