County Down men on the up as Caldwell and Sharvin open with 65's in Kenya
Justin Harding is seeking back to back wins. Picture: Getty Images
Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin put missed cuts in last week’s Kenya Open at Karen Country Club behind them by firing six-under 65’s at the same venue to lie just a shot off the lead in the Kenya Savannah Classic supported by Absa.
The Co Down duo are tied for fifth place, just a shot behind a quartet of leaders that includes Sunday’s winner Justin Harding as The Island’s Gavin Moynihan made two birdies, a bogey and a double-bogey in a 72 that left him tied for 104th.
Caldwell has missed the cut in his first two starts in Qatar and Kenya this year but armed with more local knowledge after last week’s Magical Kenya Open, he opened with three straight birdies, picked up another at the 15th and then made two more coming home on the front nine.
“I showed some decent signs the last couple of weeks although I missed the cut twice,” said Caldwell (36), who put his slow start to the season down to winter rust and inconsistency. “So it was nice to put everything together for one round anyway.
“It was nice to put everything together for one round anyway. ”
“The good stuff was good, and the bad stuff was just killing me. So I had to just eradicate some of the sloppy mistakes. I was trying to force it sometimes when I shouldn’t, so really it was just trying to get back into playing tournament golf.”
He could not have asked for a better start as he chipped close to birdie the 10th, 11th and 12th, then followed a good par save at the 13th by hitting his approach stone dead at the 15th.
“I then made a lovely putt on the 18th, which was my ninth, for par,” added Caldwell, who was brilliant around the greens. “Then it was a pretty consistent front nine. I hit a lot of fairways and greens and then managed to birdie the par-five sixth and the ninth, which was pretty gettable.
“Chipping and putting will be a strong point of mine, but last week I didn’t do that as well, so it was nice to put everything together for one day anyway and take a lot of positives from the day.”
Harding shot a seven-under 64 share the lead with Clement Sordet, Alejandro Cañizares and Joost Luiten, but Caldwell was pleased to use last week’s Kenya Open as a learning experience.
“It’s my first time here,” he said. “I know a lot of the guys have played here before, so it is really getting used to the golf course, knowing when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive. It is not the longest. The ball travels a long way, and the greens are small. It was just a question of knowing where to miss it and where not to miss it. I am just trying to miss in better spots. I just learned a little bit more from the two rounds I had and yesterday’s nine holes in practice.
“I’m feeling more comfortable with my game, and I will try and do the same things I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, and hopefully I can repeat what I had today for another three days. That would be nice.”
Sharvin (28) played Karen on the Challenge Tour in 2019, finishing tied 17th despite shooting a one-over 72 in the final round.
Like Caldwell, the Ardglass man also made a hot start, hitting a 245-yard five-iron to 12 feet at the 11th, his second hole of the day, to set up an eagle three.
He then birdied the 12th and followed a bogey at the 13th with birdie twos at the 16th and fourth before picking up two more shots at the sixth and seventh.
“Very solid,” said Sharvin, who plans to be aggressive for the next few days. “I putted it really nicely and just didn’t do much wrong. When I got out of position, I managed to hold a nice putt or make a nice up-and-down. Not too many fireworks, just a really solid round of golf and I kept the mistakes off the card.
“Last week, I feel like I got my strategy a little bit wrong.”
“I was three-under through three, and I just built on my score from there.”
Sharvin admitted he was looking forward to returning to Karen, having played in 2019 and hopes to push on this week.
“I like the course, it’s kind of old school,” he said. “Last week, I feel like I got my strategy a little bit wrong. I think I played too conservatively. I’ve decided I’m going to try and take a few holes on and try and make birdies with the scoring last week being as low as it was.
“I think the benefit for me missing the cut is that I’ve had time to rest up, and other guys have been playing until Sunday, and they might feel the fatigue, so that might stand me in good stead for the rest of the week.
“If it firms up, I can play tricky in 2019 it was very tricky, but we’ve had a few showers of rain, so so you can be aggressive with the fairways being a little softer as well, you are not going to run too far into the trees so I think I’m going to be aggressive when I can and maybe see how it goes.”
South African Harding, meanwhile, picked up exactly where he left off on Sunday, making eight birdies and a bogey as he bids to win back-to-back events for the second time in his career.
“We are playing the same golf course, so my strategy stays the same – front foot forward and see if we can keep doing what we were doing last week,” Harding said. “I played pretty good again, solid.”
Having done it on the Sunshine Tour in 2018, he is looking to become the first player to win consecutive European Tour events since Justin Rose won the WGC-HSBC Champions and Turkish Airlines Open in successive weeks in 2017.
Luiten, meanwhile, drew on some fond memories of his very first Challenge Tour appearance at Karen Country Club as he joined Harding, Cañizares and Sordet at the top of the leaderboard.
“I got an invite to play here 15 years ago on the Challenge Tour, from Daan Slooter who had a Challenge Tour event in the Netherlands, so he had some invites, and he gave me one,” Luiten said. “It was my first year as a pro, and I finished tenth that week. That’s all that I can remember. I made a birdie down the last to finish tenth, and that got me into the next tournament.”
Kenya Savannah Classic supported by Absa, Karen Country Club (Par 71)
Detailed scores
64 A Canizares (Esp), J Harding (RSA), J Luiten (Ned), C Sordet (Fra),
65 D Drysdale (Sco), Jonathan Caldwell (NIr), Cormac Sharvin (NIr), D Fichardt (RSA), M Keyser (RSA), M Armitage (Eng), R McGowan (Eng), D Van Tonder (RSA),
66 D Wakhu (Ken), J Janewattananond (Tha), S Hend (Aus), M Schwab (Aut), S Horsfield (Eng), J Suri (USA), G Fernandez-Castaño (Esp), R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra), L Johnston (Sco), L Slattery (Eng), E Cuartero Blanco (Esp), M Pavon (Fra), N Lemke (Swe),
67 W Besseling (Ned), J Senior (Eng), S Vincent (Zim), T Tree (Eng), R Langasque (Fra), A Chesters (Eng), M Schneider (Ger), J Fahrbring (Swe), C Pigem (Esp), N Bertasio (Ita), M Antcliff (Aus), V Dubuisson (Fra), C Hill (Sco), R Enoch (Wal), M Kawamura (Jpn),
68 J Lima (Por), T Lee (Kor), J Campillo (Esp), M Kieffer (Ger), A Otaegui (Esp), S Soderberg (Swe), L Van Meijel (Ned), D Huizing (Ned), B Evans (Eng), S Brown (Eng), R Santos (Por), S Kim (USA), C Howie (Sco),
69 H Long (Ger), L Gagli (Ita), D Burmester (RSA), L Bjerregaard (Den), A Cockerill (Can), G Porteous (Eng), K Reitan (Nor), J Schaper (RSA), A Levy (Fra), K Kitayama (USA), J Catlin (USA), S Sharma (Ind),
70 J Ritchie (RSA), D Van Driel (Ned), R Roussel (Fra), J Guerrier (Fra), B Poke (Den), J Kruyswijk (RSA), A Rai (Eng), R Mansell (Eng), F Laporta (Ita), D Howell (Eng), D Whitnell (Eng), M Simonsen (Den), D Coupland (Eng), J Veerman (USA), J Morrison (Eng), S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp), G Coetzee (RSA), G Bhullar (Ind), L Scalise (Ita), E Ferguson (Sco), N Von Dellingshausen (Ger), J Lagergren (Swe),
71 O Farr (Wal), R Ramsay (Sco), L De Jager (RSA), A Meronk (Pol), J Smith (Eng), G Snow (Ken), C Paisley (Eng), R Wattel (Fra), R Charania (Ken), D Law (Sco), S Chege (Ken), C Syme (Sco), O Wilson (Eng), P Angles (Esp), R McEvoy (Eng), A Quiros (Esp),
72 T Koivisto (USA), B Ritthammer (Ger), G Higgo (RSA), J Stalter (Fra), J Donaldson (Wal), A Saddier (Fra), J Asena (Ken), Gavin Moynihan (Irl), O Lieser (Cze), D Indiza Anyonyi (Ken), W Nienaber (RSA), M Mediratta (Ken), G Forrest (Sco), K Moon (Kor), J Sandhu (Am) (Ken),
73 D Young (Sco), M Southgate (Eng), T Pulkkanen (Fin), C Wangai (Ken), I Makokha (Am) (Ken), T Lawrence (RSA), A Balala (Am) (Ken), G Migliozzi (Ita), D Perrier (Fra), E Johansen (Nor), A Karlsson (Swe),
74 M Ford (Eng), S Kjeldsen (Den), E Molinari (Ita), R Bland (Eng), G Green (Mas), Y Chang (Kor), A Odoh (Ngr),
75 R Chinhoi (Zim), Z Lombard (RSA), M Karanga (Am) (Ken), R Karlberg (Swe), O Fisher (Eng), S Chawrasia (Ind),
76 O Obura (Ken), H Porteous (RSA), N Hojgaard (Den), P Figueiredo (Por), E Asuza (Ken), P Kasozi (Uga),
77 S Mburu (Ken), M Schmitt (Ger),
78 N Kibugu (Am) (Ken), M Omondi (Ken),
80 M Baldwin (Eng),
82 D Akope (Uga), T Malik (Am) (Ken)
