Sun City - Ross Fisher knows how to go low at Gary Player Country Club and he drew on that experience as he fired a four-under-par 68 for a share of the first-round lead in the $7-million Nedbank Golf Challenge.
The 2014 Tshwane Open champion opened the 2014 Sun City event with a six-under 66, and, until he dropped a shot on the tough 17th, he looked as if he was going to go very close to that kind of score again this year. “I think the more you play this course, the more you understand how to play it,” he said.
“There's times where you can be aggressive and there are times where you need to be strategic. But at the same time, you always know around here, you look at the walk up to the ninth green, you see all the scores, 22-, 24-, 18-, 20-under par, you know you have to shoot really low scores to have a chance around here.”
Fisher shared the lead with Filipe Aguilar of Chile and Korea's Jeunghun Wang, with seven players - including The Open champion and winner of the 2012 Nedbank Golf Challenge, Henrik Stenson - in a share of fourth on three-under. Amongst the group on three-under were South Africa's Jaco van Zyl and George Coetzee.
Thomas Aiken was one shot further back, and Branden Grace carded a one-under 71 to be the brightest of the early local stars to stake an early claim for a shot at the title all local players want to win. “Yeah, delighted,” said Fisher of his opening effort.
“I was working my butt off to birdie the last I have to say. After bogeying 17, I hit a decent drive there. Just had no shot really and did well to salvage bogey. Wanted to try to make birdie because I let a few chances slip on the back side.
“Didn't have much choice on 18 because five-wood was kind of bringing the bunker into play so I had to hit three-iron and I think I had 202, 187 down breeze and just ripped a seven-iron in there and it pitched about 200 yards. Left myself a good look at birdie and myself and Woody read it really well, took our time and was very pleased to see it drop, and 68 is a great start,” he added.
Scoring was tough on a day on which the wind swirled around Sun City, and the rough made players pay for being offline.
“I think it's a lot more penal if you miss fairways,” he said.
“You can miss the fairway about five to eight yards and you're okay. Any wider than that and the rough is really penal and around the greens, as well. You miss the green by five yards, you can get some really thick, brutal lies out there.
“You have to try and hit fairways, which I didn't do particularly well today, but like I say, when I missed fairways, I was in okay spots, apart from maybe number nine, I was kind of up against the trees near the fence there, so I didn't really have much choice there, and then 17. “But apart from that, when I missed the fairway, I was okay and able to go for greens. Yeah, maybe scoring might not be quite as deep but for me, I'm still of the mindset to go out there and attack and try and make as many birdies as I can and try and shoot as low as a possible score that I can.”
African News Agency (ANA)