JOHANNESBURG (Gauteng) – 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.
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 straight forward golf course, and I’ve played it a few times.” – Michael Vlismas
Tickets for the Joburg Open are available at https://sunshinetour.com/tickets
