Michael Palmer bogeyed his first hole of the opening round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella Golf Estate, but held it together afterwards to share the lead with Wynand Dingle and Keith Horne on three-under 69 on Thursday.
On a cold and windy morning Palmer made three birdies on his front nine and made one more on the back, but his progress was halted as a result of that dropped shot on 10. ‘The first bogey was a nice three-putt, but I got a bad horse-shoe there,’ Palmer said of his opening hole. ‘But I didn’t let it worry me because these green are so good, it doesn’t matter, really, where you are on the course, as long as you get a chance at a birdie or par, you get a good chance of holing it.’
He said he was happy not to have dropped more shots in the round, though.
Dingle, on the other hand, looked like he would take the first round lead as he went to six-under through 16. He dropped a shot on 17, and followed that up with a double bogey to tie with Palmer on three-under.
‘I played really nice golf. I got lucky at one stage where a tee-shot could have ended up worse than it did, and I ended up making birdie there. But other than that one hole, I played nicely; putted nicely and played well tee-to-green,’ said Dingle.
Veteran Horne was on five-under through 16, but made a double bogey on the par-three 17 to let the lead slip and tie with Dingle and Palmer at the summit. Making five birdies in that weather will give Horne some confidence, because apart from that double on 17, he played solidly all day.
‘A frustrating end to a very solid day, hey,’ remarked Horne.
‘I made one mistake out there today and I made double. I didn’t miss any greens. I missed, I think, two fairways the whole day and the one green I missed, I made a double bogey. A bit of a sour taste in the mouth walking off the golf course,’ he said.
That 17th hole seems to have been hurting a lot of players in the first round and Horne was no exception.
‘It’s into the wind you know, so it’s always a tough shot. It was a really smelly, messy hole,’ Horne noted.
Sharing fourth on two-under are Dongkwan Kim, Jaco Prinsloo, Jonathan Agren, Jacquin Hess and England’s Scott Campbell. Combrinck Smit, Peter Karmis, Callum Mowat, Keenan Davidse and defending champion Vaughn Groenewald are all on one-under 71.
Scores:
69 – Michael Palmer, Wynand Dingle, Keith Horne
70 – Dongkwan Kim, Jaco Prinsloo, Jonathan Agren, Jacquin Hess, Scott Campbell
71 – Combrinck Smit, Peter Karmis, Vaughn Groenewald, Callum Mowat, Keenan Davidse, Breyten Meyer
72 – Lyle Rowe, Stephen Ferreira, Mark Murless, Andre Nel, Titch Moore, Doug McGuigan, Chris Swanepoel, Daniel van Tonder, Neil Schietekat, Mark Williams
73 – Matthew Spacey, Steven Ferreira, Jean Hugo, Cody Martin, Matthew Carvell, Altaaf Bux, Jaco Ahlers, Jake Roos, Ockie Strydom
74 – Andre De Decker, Christiaan Basson, Justin Harding, Louis de Jager, Irvin Mazibuko, Chris Cannon, Heinrich Bruiners, Jean-Paul Strydom, Damon Stephenson
75 – JC Ritchie, Oliver Bekker, Shaun Norris, Colin Nel, Lindani Ndwandwe, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu, Stuart Smith
76 – Ryan Tipping, Makhetha Mazibuko, Rourke van der Spuy, Riekus Nortje, Merrick Bremner, Charl Coetzee, MJ Viljoen, Stefan Engell Andersen, Jason Froneman, Tyrone Ryan, Wallie Coetsee, Allan Versfeld, Andrew Curlewis, Ruan de Smidt
77 – Hennie du Plessis, Tyrone Ferreira, Alex Haindl, N.J. Arnoldi, Andrew Odoh, Bryandrew Roelofsz
78 – Antonio Costa, Matthew Rushton, Desne Van Den Bergh, CJ du Plessis, Sean Bradley, Gerrit Foster
79 – Arthur Horne, Luke Jerling, JJ Senekal, Greg Bentley, Rhys West, Antonio Rosado, Pieter Kruger
80 – Coert Groenewald, Jason Diab, Gerard du Plooy, Dwayne Basson
81 – Andrew van der Knaap, Herman Loubser, Teaghan Gauche, Jason Smith
82 – Cameron Esau, Jason Viljoen
83 – Armandt Scholtz, Johan Engelbrecht, Ben Fouchee, Eugen Marugi
85 – Shane Granger
87 – Jake Redman
RTD – Matias Calderon
Photo: Luke Walker/Gallo Images
