China’s Wenyi Ding and England’s Jordan Smith took advantage of an early start and a receptive golf course as they opened with rounds of seven-under-par 63 on the par-70 Houghton Golf Club course to share the lead in the Joburg Open on Thursday.
Ding and Smith both went bogey free on day one of this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned event, and they lead by one over South Africa’s Malcolm Mitchell and Jayden Schaper, Englishmen Marco Penge and Callum Tarren, and Germany’s Nicolai Von Dellingshausen.
With another heavy downpour overnight, the professionals were surprised to be greeted with a first round of blue sky and a golf course that had done well to recover from the rain.
Ding, who is in his rookie season on the DP World Tour, was particularly pleased with his start considering it was his South African caddie’s birthday, and he promised him a trophy this week.
“It was good to make some putts today. It’s been a long time. I hit it pretty well, especially my short irons, which gave me a lot of birdie chances,” he said.
7️⃣ birdies
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 6, 2025
0️⃣ bogeys
Wenyi Ding sets the pace early on day one. #JoburgOpen pic.twitter.com/fKHMID03jm
Smith was equally pleased with his start on a Houghton Golf Club course he hasn’t played since the Joburg Open moved to this venue.
“I’m just really happy. It’s unbelievable how good the golf course is considering how much water it took overnight. It’s a very narrow golf course with a lot of trees lining the fairways. There are a lot of different options out there, but for me I tend to go for the driver. So it was just taking advantage of hitting driver on a few holes and hitting the wedge shots closer, and trying to manage the spin because with the greens being so soft you really have to judge it carefully,” he said.
And Jayden Schaper gave himself yet another good chance at a maiden DP World Tour title as he leads the South African challenge alongside Mitchell.
“It was a nice solid start, especially with the eagle on the first hole. The golf course was playing quite soft in perfect conditions. It’s a straightforward golf course, and I’ve played it a few times.”
SCORES
63 - Wenyi Ding, Jordan Smith
64 - Nicolai Von Dellingshausen, Malcolm Mitchell, Marco Penge, Jayden Schaper, Callum Tarren
65 - Jacob Olesen, Adrien Saddier, Gavin Green, Dylan Frittelli, Wilco Nienaber, Ugo Coussaud, Jacques Kruyswijk, Richard Mansell, Jack Senior
66 - Rhys West, Danny List, Shubhankar Sharma, Jaco Ahlers, Hennie Otto, Connor Syme, Joost Luiten, Shaun Norris, Kieran Vincent
67 - Alexander Levy, George Coetzee, Sean Crocker, Jaco Van Zyl, Louis Albertse, Aaron Cockerill, Romain Langasque, Toto Thimba Jnr, Maximilian Steinlechner, Francesco Laporta, Brandon Stone, Robin Williams, Daniel van Tonder
68 - Jordan Duminy, Bjorn Akesson, Merrick Bremner, Tapio Pulkkanen, Tom Vaillant, Dale Whitnell, Daniel Brown, Nikhil Rama, Ben Schmidt, Todd Clements, Brandon Robinson Thompson, Nathan Kimsey, Ross Fisher, Michael Hollick, Franklin Manchest
69 - Luke Brown, Martin Rohwer, Pieter Moolman, Darius van Driel, Sam Bairstow, Martin Vorster, Gerhard Pepler, Julien Brun, Benjamin Follett-Smith, Mikael Lindberg, Oliver Bekker, Adrian Otaegui, Jeong Weon Ko, Rhys Enoch, Kyle Barker, Calum Hill, Richard Sterne, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Ewen Ferguson
70 - Kayle Wykes, Deon Germishuys, Matthew Spacey, Jacques P de Villiers, Manuel Elvira, Ryggs Johnston, Heinrich Bruiners, Jacques Blaauw, Dylan Naidoo, Pierre Pineau, Kyle McClatchie, Kazuma Kobori, Musiwalo Nethunzwi, MJ Viljoen, Andy Sullivan, Freddy Schott, Thomas Aiken, Richie Ramsay, Ryan Van Velzen, Alejandro Del Rey, Marcel Siem
71 - Ivan Cantero, Graham van der Merwe, Zander Lombard, Jean Hugo, Jordan Gumberg, Johannes Veerman, Ethan Smith, Lyle Pedro, Luke Jerling, Stals Swart, CJ du Plessis, Rupert Kaminski, Jens Dantorp, Matthew Southgate, Casey Jarvis, Dan Bradbury, Darren Fichardt, Niklas Lemke, Makhetha Mazibuko
72 - Jastice Mashego, Scott Jamieson, Nicolas Colsaerts, Yurav Premlall, Jonathan Broomhead, Trevor Mahoney, Jake Redman, Robson Chinhoi, Dylan Mostert, Jovan Rebula, Lucas Bjerregaard, John Parry, Ricardo Gouveia, Trevor Fisher Jnr
73 - Joel Girrbach, Ruan Korb, Joel Moscatel, Combrinck Smit, Matthew Baldwin, Matthias Schwab, Haydn Porteous, Hayden Griffiths, Louis de Jager, Simon Forsstrom, Veer Ahlawat
74 - Neil Schietekat, Peter Karmis, Rafa Cabrera Bello, JC Ritchie, David Ravetto
75 - JJ Senekal, Albert Venter, Keenan Davidse, Corey Shaun
76 - Danie Van Niekerk, Keith Horne, Ivan Verster, Ruan Conradie, Lyle Rowe
77 - Keelan van Wyk, Anthony Michael
78 - Stefan Wears-Taylor
81 - Tristin Galant
83 - Stephen Ferreira