Branden Grace was pretty chuffed with his opening-round showing of seven under par at the 2020 SA Open, hosted by the City of Johannesburg, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
The 31-year-old carded a bogey-free round of 64 and will head into Friday’s second round in tied-fourth position after American Johannes Veerman topped the early leaderboard with an emphatic round of nine under par.
Grace, who did the best on the Firethorn course today, was very pleased to start the new year with such a good performance.
‘I played really nicely … I gave myself a lot of chances and I took them when they came my way. It’s nice to start the year with a bogey-free seven under, so there are a lot of positives from that and I am looking forward to the next three days,’ said Grace.
The 2017 Nedbank Golf Challenge winner credited his aggressive approach from the tee box, while he also feels the hard work he’s put into his short game has led to some improvement on the greens.
‘When I play in Joburg, around these areas, I always play very aggressive from the tees and I sticked to the same game plan today. I’ve worked hard on the putting and I made a couple of nice putts, so it was a little bit of everything today.’
Grace remains determined to add the SA Open trophy to his collection, having never won the coveted prize.
‘This is the one that is missing and it is a big one. I can’t put more pressure on myself than I do already. I want to win and I want to win it dearly – I just need to stay focused, stay with the game plan and just go do my thing out there like I did today,’ said Grace.
