Daniel van Tonder continued to take the Rise-Up Series by storm with another excellent display in the opening round of the Vodacom Championship Reloaded on Wednesday.
The fifth and final event of the series teed off at Huddle Park on Wednesday morning and proved to be a low and easy scoring round for the field of contenders.
Van Tonder, who won the African Bank Sunshine Tour Championship and last week’s Vodacom Championship Unlocked, finished the day as the early leader after an excellent nine-under-par 63.
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His display included two eagles, six birdies and one bogey, which handed him a one-stroke lead by the close of play.
‘Everything about my game just feels really good at the moment. I’m very happy. I played simple golf again. I hit driver a lot and gave myself chances to hit wedges close to the pins. I made one bogey on the par-three third hole where I hit it over the green, but after that I made a few birdies and two eagles, so I’m quite happy,’ Van Tonder said about his brilliant form of late.
‘The wind was blowing quite a bit, but for some reason the worse the weather gets the better it is for me. I like it tough. I’ve always felt that I want to be one of South Africa’s best golfers. I just want to get overseas and prove myself, and I feel like I’m just working towards getting that chance to go over there.’
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Hot on his tail, however, are Christiaan Basson and Louis de Jager, who also produced solid opening rounds by concluding the day on eight under par thanks to respective 64s.
Malcolm Mitchell, Jacques Blaauw and Musiwalo Nethunzwi are a further stroke back in T4, while young Jayden Schaper finds himself in seventh spot after a round of 66 with him rolling in a total of three eagles.
