Merrick Bremner reined in his naturally aggressive game to good effect on Thursday on his way to a seven-under-par 65 and a share of the lead after the first round of the R1-million Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Humewood Golf Club.
Starting his round on the 10th, he made three birdies on his way to the turn, and then four more after that as he handed in a bogey-free card to share the lead with Dylan Naidoo. The pair was two shots clear of Jacquin Hess who shot a 67 to finish the first round of the 54-hole event in second.
‘I played to a game-plan,’ said Bremner of his game which featured less use of driver than usual for him. ‘There were some holes with a different wind today from the one we had in the pro-am, so you have to make decisions on the fly. I stuck to what I had decided for the most part, but I did hit a couple of different shots – less club, rather than more – and it seemed to pay off.’
There were moments when Bremner was able to indulge his desire to pull the driver out, however. ‘The birdie on eight was really nice,’ he said. ‘It was pretty much straight downwind off the tee, and I hit a beautiful driver down the middle of the fairway. I had 102 to the flag. With it being so much downwind, I tried to pitch it maybe seven or eight short of the flag. I did and it still skipped on past the pin, got to a little backstop and kind of fed back down. I made the 12- or 13-footer for birdie.’
His putting was solid throughout on a day during which everything fell into place for him, but nothing seemed startlingly good to him. “No really key moments for me out there,” he said. “I did make a really good putt on the third, the par-three, which jump-started my back nine. Otherwise, I was just pretty solid. I hit a lot of fairways, found a lot of greens and made some putts.”
For Naidoo, it’s been an unspectacular year so far as he’s attempted to rebuild his game on his return from a scholarship in the United States. This score represented a major improvement on just three cuts made this season, with a best of a share of 21st at the end of August.
‘It was awesome,’ said Naidoo. ‘I played some good golf today. For the last few tournaments, I’ve been feeling the good golf starting to flow like there’s a bit of momentum going. It’s kind of a continuation of that but I’m glad to get a really low score.’
Like Naidoo, Hess made just a single bogey in his round – on the eighth. It was a round during which he missed just one green the whole day, so his plan for the second round is clear.
Bremner articulated the plan perfectly and will attempt to execute it again in the second round.
‘The premium is probably on hitting fairways and get on the greens and then just let the putter do the work,’ he said. ‘It’s always tricky when you come to Humewood. Coastal golf, links golf is not the easiest, but if you can get it round, you can create a lot of opportunities.’
First round leaderboard:
65 – Merrick Bremner, Dylan Naidoo
67 – Jacquin Hess
68 – Steve Surry, Ockie Strydom, Wynand Dingle
69 – Ruan de Smidt, JJ Senekal, Allister de Kock, Andrew van der Knaap, Ruan Conradie, James Hart du Preez
70 – Deon Germishuys, Daniel van Tonder, Clinton Grobler, Wallie Coetsee, Christiaan Basson, Riekus Nortje, Daniel Greene, Ruan Korb, Philip Geerts
71 – Ryan O’Neill, Jacques Blaauw, Jake Redman, Jaco Prinsloo, Luke Jerling, Luke Mayo, Joe Nawanga, Rourke van der Spuy, Jonathan Agren, Doug McGuigan, MJ Viljoen, Lyle Rowe
72 – Sipho Bujela, Matthew Rushton, Darin de Smidt, Jean-Paul Strydom, CJ du Plessis, Hennie Otto, Combrinck Smit, Scott Campbell, Derick Petersen, Teaghan Gauche, Yubin Jung, Andrew Curlewis, Martin Rohwer, Pieter Moolman, Ryan Tipping
73 – Tristen Strydom, Jacques P de Villiers, Musiwalo Nethunzwi, Sean Bradley, Trevor Fisher Jnr, Kyle McClatchie, Jared Harvey, Titch Moore, Jonathan Waschefort, Stephen Ferreira, Benjamin Follett-Smith, Kyle Barker, Estiaan Conradie, Francois van Vuuren
74 – Neswill Croy, Ruan Huysamen, Paul Boshoff, Garrick Higgo, Herman Loubser, Christopher Van der Merwe, Erhard Lambrechts, DK Kim, Breyten Meyer, Karl Ochse
75 – Roberto Lupini, Heinrich Bruiners, Andre Nel, Makhetha Mazibuko, Anton Haig, Teboho Sefatsa, Peetie van der Merwe, Matt Bright, Keelan van Wyk, Gerrit Foster, Fredrik From, Chris Cannon, Hayden Griffiths, Thabiso Ngcobo, TC Charamba, Theunis Bezuidenhout, Franklin Manchest
76 – Caylum Boon, Jade Buitendag, Altaaf Bux, Juran Dreyer, Chris Swanepoel, Tyrone Ryan, Ruan Botha
77 – Basil Wright, Lwazi Gqira, Callum Mowat, Stefan Wears-Taylor, Andre De Decker, David McIntyre, Jason Diab
78 – Nicholaus Frade, Louis Albertse
79 – Arno Pretorius, Duane Keun, Jean Hugo, CJ Levey
80 – Toto Thimba, Luke Brown, Thato Mazibuko
81 – Wayne Stroebel, James Pennington, James Kamte
82 – Alpheus Kelapile
83 – Hendrikus Stoop
84 – Marco de Beer
87 – Fritz Orren
88 – Pequestro Dyssel
90 – Eugene Marugi
