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Peterson posts 62 before weather delays Joburg Open

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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 23: Paul Peterson during day 1 of the 2017 Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on February 23, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. EDITOR'S NOTE: For free editorial use. Not available for sale. No commercial usage. (Photo by Petri Oeschger/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images)

Paul Peterson of the United States got round the West course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club in nine-under-par 62 on Thursday, well before the soaking rain stopped play in the first round of the Joburg Open.

He didn’t drop a single shot in an impressive display, and he had a two-shot lead over the England duo of Aaron Rai and Paul Waring, who carded their seven-under 65s on the par-72 East course. There were three players home in six-under. Romain Langasque of France and South African Jbe’ Kruger carded theirs on the West course, while Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg was on East.

‘It was fun out there today,’ he said. ‘Birdieing half of the holes is never bad, and bogey-free to match, so I felt really good out there. I got into a nice rhythm and I put a new putter in play this week. It proved to be a good first round with it so I’m really happy.’

Play for the day was called off at 2.35pm, and will resume at 6.45am on Friday, after hours of soaking rain added to the water levels on a course that had already taken more than 140 millimetres over the past two days.

‘Actually, I am very impressed with the conditions of the course and the greens,’ said Peterson. ‘They even put mowers on the fairways. I wasn’t sure they were going to be able to do that, so hats off to the superintendent and everybody for getting the course prepped.’

It was all well and good to be happy with fairways and greens, but there’s more to a golf course than that. ‘You definitely got some mud balls in the rough,” he said. “I did a couple of times today. I tried to manage my ball as best I could, but thankfully I was in the fairway a lot.’

Defending champion Haydn Porteous was off to a solid start and was three-under through 12 holes when play was abandoned. The three major champions in the field had varying degrees of success. YE Yang, the 1999 PGA champion, carded one-under 71 on the East course; 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman was three-over through 12 on East; and 2011 Open champion Darren Clarke was two-over on East.

Play will not resume on Friday until after 9am.

From sunshinetour.com