Harvey grabs big lead at Zimbali

Jared Harvey powered his way to a five-shot lead as he carded an eight-under-par 64 opening round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Zimbali Country Club to take him well clear of the chasing pack on Thursday.

Playing on what he called ‘an adopted home course’, Harvey wasted no time in getting himself ahead as he made three birdies and an eagle on the front nine. Three more birdies on the homeward stretch completed a flawless round as no bogeys found their way on to his scorecard.

‘That was a solid start. I got off to a very good start,’ he said.

‘I felt comfortable knowing it was a down wind at the start and I felt I had to capitalise on the start with a reachable par-five. I thought you had to capitalise on those before heading back into the wind, and I think I did that nicely.’

He would take very good advantage of those conditions on the par-five sixth as he made his eagle there.

‘Look, as I said, I got off to a good start. I birdied the first and I birdied the third, which was good,’ Harvey noted.

‘On four, I am always happy with a par there whether it’s up wind or down wind. That eagle was unexpected because that is usually not my favourite hole when I play in regulation with the members.

‘But I hit a really good second shot to just short of the green and I just rolled the putt in and from there on I was five-under through six and I knew that we are going well.’

Jake Roos, Lindani Ndwandwe and Keenan Davidse share second after they all signed for three-under-par 69.

‘I played beautifully the first few holes,’ Davidse said.

‘But the back nine was very tough with the wind. But, overall I am very happy with that start.’

Veteran Jean Hugo, last week’s winner Oliver Bekker, Ockie Strydom and rookie Herman Loubser share the fifth spot on two-under-par 70.

Tyrone Ryan, Christiaan Basson, Andre Nel, NJ Arnoldi and Sweden’s Jonathan Agren share ninth on one-under.

The second round promises to be exciting as players will be aiming to keep up and possibly usurp Harvey from the summit.

Final leaderboard:

64 – Jared Harvey
69 – Jake Roos, Keenan Davidse, Lindani Ndwandwe
70 – Jean Hugo, Oliver Bekker, Herman Loubser, Ockie Strydom
71 – Tyrone Ryan, Christiaan Basson, Andre Nel, N.J. Arnoldi, Jonathan Agren, Adilson Da Silva
72 – Desne Van Den Bergh, Jason Froneman, Greg Bentley, Warren Abery, Aubrey Beckley, Theunis Spangenberg, Andrew Curlewis, Madalitso Muthiya, Riekus Nortje, Jacques Kruyswijk, Hennie du Plessis, Stuart Smith, Lyle Rowe, Louis de Jager, Matias Calderon
73 – Jaco Mouton, Doug McGuigan, Ulrich van den Berg, Daniel van Tonder, Michael Palmer, James Kamte, Kyle Pilgrim, Jean-Paul Strydom, Thanda Mavundla, Colin Nel, Cody Martin, Jacquin Hess, Jason Viljoen
74 – MJ Viljoen, Justin Harding, Merrick Bremner, Neil Schietekat, Wallie Coetsee, Rhys West, Alex Haindl, Michael Hollick, Martin Rohwer, JJ Senekal, Damon Stephenson, Andre De Decker
75 – Cameron Esau, Divan Gerber, Musiwalo Nethunzwi, Kevin Stone, Combrinck Smit, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Titch Moore, Chris Swanepoel, Stefan Engell Andersen, Chris Cannon, Antonio Rosado, Ruan de Smidt, Tyrone Ferreira, Rourke van der Spuy, Armandt Scholtz, Ruan Huysamen
76 – Bryandrew Roelofsz, Sipho Bujela, Francois Coetzee, Ryan Tipping, Allan Versfeld, Jeff Inglis, Steven Ferreira, Quintin Wilsnach, Anthony Michael, Zack Byrd, Jake Redman, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu, Shaun Coetzee
77 – Mark Murless, Callum Mowat, Vaughn Groenewald, Breyten Meyer, Jaco Prinsloo, Coert Groenewald, Dongkwan Kim, Jason Smith
78 – Sean Bradley, Michael Green, Andrew Odoh, Andrew van der Knaap, Heinrich Bruiners, Gerard du Plooy, William Weidner
79 – Luke Jerling, Makhetha Mazibuko
80 – Danie Van Niekerk, Mark Williams, Irvin Mazibuko
81 – Matthew Carvell, Gert Myburgh, Drikus van der Walt
82 – PH McIntyre, Teaghan Gauche, Mohit Mediratta, Antonio Costa
83 – Kyle Barker
84 – Omar Sandys, Stephen Ferreira
85 – Willem Lindeque
89 – Altaaf Bux
DSQ – JC Ritchie