Daniel van Tonder continued his good run of form by posting a six under par round of 66 on the first day of the Limpopo Championship at Euphoria Golf Club.
The World Number 80, the highest ranked player in the field this week, leads by one shot from countryman Neil Schietekat and Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard Møller, who both opened with five under par rounds of 67 in Modimolle.
The 30-year-old won his first European Tour title at last month’s Kenya Savannah Classic supported by Absa and he is now riding the crest of a wave as he bids for his sixth worldwide win in the last eight months.
“I was confident,” he said. “I played well. I was driving well, hitting irons well, chipping and putting well. The trick here is to keep yourself on the course, give yourself opportunities and just use it.
“It’s a golf course, you play the golf course. It’s par fives, par fours and par threes, all you want to do is hit fairways and greens, that’s the main thing. They say horses for courses, I mean a golf course is a golf course, you still have to hit a tee shot and your second and stuff, it’s just about how you approach it at the end of the day.”
Møller, who finished in a tie for fifth place at the Challenge Tour Grand Final to end his 2020 season, finished day one just a single stroke off the lead after a near-perfect opening round before bogeying the last due to a lost ball.
“I had a very good front nine, which made the base for the round today,” he said. “I had to grind a bit on the back nine, had some good par saves and then had an unfortunate finish. I had a lost ball in the left semi-rough and that takes a bit off the momentum and how happy I am right now, but overall it was a solid day.
“It was the very famous ‘panic hour’ the day before the tournament. I was struggling on the first couple of days and I found something yesterday, luckily brought it today and I just felt very calm on the first tee. I felt calm all day.”
Behind Møller and Schietekat is a group of nine players in a share of fourth place on four under par including home favourite Jacques Kruyswijk, Spain’s Manuel Elvira and Swedish duo Jens Dantorp and Mikael Lindberg.
Play was halted due to darkness at 5:56pm local time, therefore round one will resume at 6:30am local time on Friday April 23.
