Xander Basson carded a phenomenal opening round of 63 to take a two-shot lead in the eighth tournament of the season hosted at Waterkloof Golf Club.
It was Basson’s second 63 in as many starts after he shot the same score in the final round of the seventh event which was held at CMR Golf Club last week, a feat he admitted was a first for him.
“Last week, I made a comeback for it and shot nine under to finish in second place after Paul Boshoff played some amazing golf,” Basson stated. “It’s been a good few events now. Over the last five few events, I think I got four top 10s. Last week, I finished the week off with a nice 63 and today, I followed it up with another 63.
“It’s actually a first for me to shoot two 63s in a row. Interestingly, I hadn’t touched a club since last Thursday. But it was a good round and I am happy with how I have been playing.”
Starting his round on 10, Basson made birdie there but those gains were immediately erased as he dropped on the next hole. After making pars on his next two holes, Basson let loose and the result was a run of four birdies and an eagle to turn in 30.
He rode that momentum to the back nine; shooting three-under-par on that stretch with zero bogeys to write home about.
“I started off a little slow,” he admitted. “I three-putted on 11 which was my second hole of the day. And then I went on a great run from 14; made a birdie there. 15, I hit it close and I holed out on 16 from about 58 metres and that got my round going. I took the momentum from there and it went well.”
Defending champion, Reece McKain and last week’s champion, Paul Boshoff carded respective rounds of 65 to share second on the leaderboard while England’s Joe Knox, amateur Oliver Goldhill, Zimbabwe’s David Amm, Luke Trocado and Leon Visser tied fourth at six-under par.
Travis Ladner and Eric Wowor made up the rest of the top 10 leading players; sharing ninth at five-under.