De Jonge in better place

SUN CITY. — Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge’s eagle at the par-five ninth, on the stroke of the siren, catapulted him into a three-way share of second place on a rain-hit Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club yesterday.
Englishman Luke Donald emerged from an incomplete opening round yesterday with a two-stroke lead after thunderstorms brought a premature end to proceedings.

De Jonge was in second place at three-under par with Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Dane Thomas Bjorn.
Donald reached the 12th hole at five-under par courtesy of an eagle and three birdies before the siren went.

Defending champion Martin Kaymer finds himself a further stroke adrift at two under, while a group of seven players, including the South African duo of Charl Schwartzel and Darren Fichardt, share sixth place on one under.

The players had only returned to the course at 3pm after a delay of nearly three hours, but tournament officials once again called a halt to proceedings at 4:18pm as ominous skies lurked in the Pilanesburg area.

The decision was then taken to call an end to the day’s play at 4:35pm.
Play will resume today at 7:30am, with the groupings and tee times remaining the same for the second round.

Donald, though, remained impervious to the frustrations of the interruptions, and got his round off to the ideal start as he followed an opening birdie with a glorious eagle at the par-five second.

Further birdies at the eighth and ninth holes completed an outward nine of 31, and the 35-year-old was understandably pleased with his efforts on a difficult opening day.

“It was a lovely start,” Donald commented. “It doesn’t get much better than three-three around here. Birdie, eagle and all of a sudden you are three-under par through two holes. I played solid for those first 11 holes and hit a couple of very nice shots in that time that I was able to take advantage of. I feel good over the ball right now and I am playing with confidence.”

“The weather delay was annoying, but that happens a lot to us and I think we are all used to it. We usually get some smaller delays here but today was a bit more than usual. But we’ll just come back and do it again tomorrow,” the former world No 1 added.

By his own admission, Donald enjoyed a steady but unspectacular season. However, a successful defence of his title at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan a fortnight ago gave him his first win of the year, and he cites an improvement in his putting as the catalyst for his good form.

“I took a lot of confidence from that,” the 2011 Race to Dubai and PGA Tour money winner recalled. “It is a place that I love to go back to and a course that I love to play so it was very satisfying to be able to go back there and defend.”

He continued: “I had seen good signs in Dubai the week before that and did some good work on my long game with Chuck Cook before I left for Dubai, and I really felt the benefit of that. I also have to say that the putting came back in Dubai and Japan. That had been a little off for most of the year so it was very encouraging to get that back and I am feeling good about my game right now.”

Donaldson reached the 13th hole at three under, while Bjorn had just rolled one home for birdie at the sixth when the players were called off the course. Both men are yet to card a bogey.

However, De Jonge’s outward 33 was somewhat more tumultuous, and he rounded it off aptly at the ninth. Having been forced to lay up for two, his 101-metre approach landed 15 feet past the pin, and, to the delight of the galleries surrounding the green, spun back into the hole.

Germany’s Kaymer briefly breached the three under mark after his two at the short fourth hole, but a bogey at the fifth has seen him fall back into sole possession of fifth having completed six holes.

Schwartzel and Fichardt lead the South African charge, with Richard Sterne and Louis Oosthuizen a further shot back at even par having completed nine and 10 holes respectively.

Three-time champion Ernie Els endured a difficult day, and had slipped to three-over par for his seven holes before time was called.—SuperSport.