Oliver Goldhill carded a bogey-free 11-under 61 to lead by four shots after Tuesday’s first round of the Betway Big Easy Tour Final held at Waterkloof Golf Club.
“I think I kept it somewhat steady off the tee,” said Goldhill after his superb outing. “I made the putts I needed to make. But, I think my approach game was really solid today. I hit them really close and I didn’t need much to make birdie putts because it wasn’t like they were too far, and I rolled the ball on the right lines and they dropped.”
Goldhill started his round with a par on the first, then a birdie and then another par. He followed up with a brace of birdies on four and five. Then, two more birdies – on seven and eight – made their way onto his scorecard as he turned in 31 and blemish-free.
After the turn, Goldhill went on a rampage, birdieing the 10th, 11th and 12th. He made par on 14 and followed that up with another hat-trick of birdies to seal an untainted round of 61, taking a healthy four-shot lead into the second round.
With the final round carrying 350 Order of Merit points for the winner of this event, and with Goldhill fourth on the standings and still chasing his first win, another solid round on Wednesday could set him up with a real chance of claiming his maiden win and a shot at the top spot of the standings.
“It’s an important week, this” Goldhill noted. “It’s the final one of the season. My goal has always been simple from the beginning of the season, and that was to try and get a win. But, with that said, whatever comes, comes. All I can do is play good golf and let the golf take care of everything else.”
Second on the leaderboard is Tristan Leonard who shot a near-perfect 65. His round was characterised by six birdies, an eagle and a solitary bogey.
England’s Jake Bolton and the in-form Daniel Cronje share the third spot after they shot 66s on day one.
Only the top 30 players on the Order of Merit are eligible for the final at Waterkloof and the top 12 players on the Order of Merit, along with the leading six transformation players, will earn their Sunshine Tour cards at the end of this week.
The final round will be streamed live on the Sunshine Tour’s YouTube, Facebook and X platforms from 08H00 on Thursday.
The Betway Big Easy Tour is the Sunshine Tour’s feeder circuit and enjoys the support of the legendary Ernie Els, among other patrons.