Jonathan Caldwell finds himself four shots off the lead at the MyGolfLife Open in South Africa. A flawless round of 66 with six birdies wasn’t enough to keep him in touch with the leading pack on 10 under but nontheless Caldwell has stayed in the reckoning heading into Friday.
Caldwell started with a birdie on the par five tenth, going on to pick up further shots at 14, 15, four, five and nine.
England’s Ross Fisher flirted with carding the second 59 in DP World Tour history on a day of extraordinarily low scoring .
Fisher started on the back nine at Pecanwood Golf and Country Club and made an eagle on his opening hole of the day before collecting nine birdies to reach 11 under par with two holes remaining.
Birdies on those two holes would have seen Fisher emulate namesake Oliver Fisher in breaking the 60-barrier, but the former Ryder Cup player bogeyed the eighth and parred the last.
An opening 62 was only good enough for a share of the lead with Spain’s Nacho Elvira and South Africans Tristen Strydom and Hennie Du Plessis on 10 under par, with Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal a shot behind.
Elvira made seven birdies in a row to start his back nine and 126 players in the 156-strong field broke par.
England’s Richard Bland and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, who are chasing a place in next month’s Masters by climbing into the world’s top 50, are seven shots off the pace following matching rounds of 69.
Collated Collated first round scores in the DP World Tour MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood Pecanwood G&CC, Hartbeespoort, South Africa
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 72):
62 Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa), Tristen Strydom (Rsa), Ross Fisher
63 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)
64 J. C. Ritchie (Rsa), Richard Sterne (Rsa), Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger)
65 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Laurie Canter, Shaun Norris (Rsa), Aaron Cockerill (Can), Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Neil Schietekat (Rsa), J. J. Senekal (Rsa), Trevor Fisher (Rsa), Keenan Davidse (Rsa), Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry)
66 Sami Valimaki (Fin), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Jonathan Caldwell, Marcus Armitage, Brandon Stone (Rsa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Justin Harding (Rsa), Oliver Bekker (Rsa), Ulrich van den Berg (Rsa), Jason Scrivener (Aus), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Richie Ramsay, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Joost Luiten (Ned), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Julien Brun (Fra), Frederic Lacroix (Fra)
67 Ashun Wu (Chn), Steven Brown, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Jbe’ Kruger (Rsa), Daniel Greene (Rsa), Louis Albertse (Rsa), James du Preez (Rsa), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Andy Sullivan, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Connor Syme, Chris Paisley
68 Scott Hend (Aus), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Antoine Rozner (Fra), George Coetzee (Rsa), Martin Rohwer (Rsa), Louis de Jager (Rsa), MJ Viljoen (Rsa), Jacques Blaauw (Rsa), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Rhys Enoch, Jakobus Roos (Rsa), C. J. Du Plessis (Rsa), Thomas Detry (Bel), Jamie Donaldson, Adrian Meronk (Pol), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Jordan Smith, Kalle Samooja (Fin), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), David Law, Scott Jamieson, Ewen Ferguson, Siyanda Mwandla (Rsa), Jake Redman (Rsa), Musiwalo Nethunzwi (Rsa)
69 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Richard Bland, Grant Forrest, Hurly Long (Ger), Lyle Rowe (Rsa), Bryce Easton (Rsa), Jaco van Zyl (Rsa), Dylan Naidoo (Rsa), Sean Crocker (USA), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), James Morrison, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Justin Walters (Rsa), Matthias Schmid (Ger), Santiago Tarrio (Spa), Divan van den Heever (Rsa), Jayden Schaper (Rsa)
70 Chris Wood, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Daniel Gavins, Deon Germishuys (Rsa), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Anton Karlsson (Swe), Philip Eriksson (Swe), Luke Brown (Rsa), Alexander Haindl (Rsa), Jaco Prinsloo (Rsa), Rourke van der Spuy (Rsa), Ruan Conradie (Rsa), Stephen Ferreira (Por), Adria Arnaus (Spa), Maverick Antcliff (Aus), Romain Langasque (Fra), Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), David Drysdale, Jack Singh-Brar, Marcus Helligkilde (Den), Nikhil Rama (Rsa), Wynand Dingle (Rsa)
71 Zander Lombard (Rsa), Jaco Ahlers (Rsa), Keith Horne (Rsa), Christiaan Basson (Rsa), Merrick Bremner (Rsa), Wil Besseling (Ned), Nino Bertasio (Ita), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Chase Hanna (USA), Stefan Wears-Taylor (Rsa)
72 Andrea Pavan (Ita), Johannes Veerman (USA), Jean Hugo (Rsa), Ockie Strydom (Rsa), Ruan de Smidt (Rsa), Lukas Nemecz (Aut), Espen Kofstad (Nor), Jason Diab (Rsa), Chris Cannon, Makgetha Mazibuko (Rsa)
73 Stephen Gallacher, Michael Palmer (Rsa), Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Dale Whitnell, Yubin Jung (Rsa)
74 Benjamin Follett-Smith (Zim), Estiaan Conradie (Rsa), Steve Surry, Sebastian Garcia (Spa), Yannik Paul (Ger), Kyle Barker (Rsa), Chris Swanepoel (Rsa)
75 Toto Thimba Jr. (Rsa), Callum Mowat (Rsa)
76 Darius van Driel (Ned), Adriel Poonan (Rsa)
78 James Kingston (Rsa)
79 Pierre Pellegrin Mauritius
80 Derick Petersen (Rsa)
