South Africa’s Danielle du Toit and Kiera Floyd joined a four-way tie for the lead after a tough first round of the SuperSport Ladies Challenge presented by Sun International at Sun City on Wednesday.
The Gary Player Country Club course showed its teeth as Du Toit and Floyd as well as India’s Vidhatri Urs and Spain’s Harang Lee all posted opening rounds of two-under 70 to lead by one stroke.
The challenge posed by the Gary Player Country Club course was evident, with only nine players managing to shoot a score under par on day one of this Sunshine Ladies Tour event.
Du Toit found some trouble on the front nine, including a double-bogey on the par-four 6th hole.
“I think I played the golf course scared,” she said. “I was very tentative on every shot I hit and that snowballed. You can’t do that ever. On the 6th I was in the bunker, and then I somehow could not get it on the green. It was just a mess.”
But she managed to find some rhythm on her way back to the clubhouse, rolling in four birdies for a share of the lead.
“I just looked at my caddie and said I am playing scared golf, now I am just going to line it up, hit it well and have some faith in it. After that I started swinging freely and the momentum just rolled and a couple of putts fell.”
But Du Toit is not about to get ahead of herself on a golf course set up to punish anything hit offline.
“If you hit it in the rough here you are dead. I have my game plan to take out all the trouble and swing freely. Basically the same way I played back nine today.”
Casandra Alexander, the 2023 champion and last week’s Jabra Ladies Classic winner, fell victim to an unforgiving par-five 18th hole (the traditional 9th, but with the nines swopped for this tournament) as she carded an eight here on her way to a one-over 73.
Photo: Sunshine Ladies Tour
