Kyle Barker has been trying to hone his game in preparation for the DP World Tour Qualifying School at the end of this month in Spain, and the 26-year-old fired an exceptional 63 in the opening round of the Fortress Invitational at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday to fill him with confidence.
The Serengeti Estates golfer enjoys a one-stroke lead in the R2-million event, after Werner Deyzel and defending champion Robin Williams pushed him hard with 64s.
Barker’s nine-under-par score, which was also bogey-free, was his best round of the season and it seems he could be peaking at the right time after a solid but unspectacular start to the campaign sees him sitting in 18th position on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.
“I had a great first couple of months but then things just slowed down,” he said. “I was struggling a bit with my game and the set-up in my bag. But now I’ve found a really nice putter that is rolling the ball fantastically.
“This is my last event before going to the DP World Tour Qualifying School and I really enjoyed the day. I was hitting the ball really nicely on the range in my warm-up and I just wanted to keep that feeling going, so birdies on the first two holes was a great way to start. I didn’t know that I was going to make only 26 putts, though!
“The greens were very receptive after the rain on Tuesday night, and long-irons were pretty much stopping where they landed and wayward tee-shots would not bounce into too much trouble under trees. So I could be quite aggressive, but the back nine was a bit tougher because the wind picked up.”
The highlight of a round that was just the right therapy for Barker was his eagle on the par-five 11th.
“I smashed a drive down the middle and I had 196m to the front left, but the wind was slightly in my face, about seven or eight metres,,” he explained. “So I hit a 205m shot with a six-iron, it was a bit long, in the middle of the green, but I had a downhill, 30-foot putt which went straight in the middle of the hole, which was really cool.”
Deyzel and Williams also had eagles in the first round, both of them on the 500m par-five 6th. Williams hit a brilliant seven-iron from 165m to three feet, which put him level with Barker on nine under par, but he bogeyed the par-three 8th, his penultimate hole.
Williams continued the momentum from his brilliant fourth-place finish in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship earlier this month and he was satisfied that he had positioned himself well in his first defence of a title in his professional career.
“It’s been really cool today,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve defended and I’m just remembering all the good memories from last year. It all kicked off for me here last year. Playing in Europe was good, but it is so tough there because everything is so different.
“My game was really good today, everything was solid, just a bit of a mistake on 8. But I kept the ball on the fairways. It’s just a course I really enjoy, the par-fives are not that long, so I picture them as par-fours and try to be more aggressive, as long as you find the fairway. I drove well and was able to take advantage of the par-fives.
“I will definitely take that first round. I just want to put myself in a position to defend on the back nine on Sunday.”
Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour
