Ding and Smith lead Joburg Open

Wenyi Ding. Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

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 to share the lead in the Joburg Open.

Ding and Smith both went bogey free on day one of this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned event at par-70 Houghton Golf Club to lead by a shot from South Africa’s Malcolm Mitchell and Jayden Schaper, Englishmen Marco Penge and Callum Tarren, and Germany’s Nicolai Von Dellingshausen.

Jordan Smith during round one of the Joburg Open at Houghton. Picture: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour

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.”

SCORES

63 - Wenyi Ding, Jordan Smith

64 - Nicolai Von Dellingshausen, Malcolm Mitchell, Marco Penge, Jayden Schaper, Callum Tarren

65 - Jacob Olesen, Adrien Saddier, Gavin Green, Dylan Frittelli, Wilco Nienaber, Ugo Coussaud, Jacques Kruyswijk, Richard Mansell, Jack Senior

66 - Rhys West, Danny List, Shubhankar Sharma, Jaco Ahlers, Hennie Otto, Connor Syme, Joost Luiten, Shaun Norris, Kieran Vincent

67 - Alexander Levy, George Coetzee, Sean Crocker, Jaco Van Zyl, Louis Albertse, Aaron Cockerill, Romain Langasque, Toto Thimba Jnr, Maximilian Steinlechner, Francesco Laporta, Brandon Stone, Robin Williams, Daniel van Tonder

68 - Jordan Duminy, Bjorn Akesson, Merrick Bremner, Tapio Pulkkanen, Tom Vaillant, Dale Whitnell, Daniel Brown, Nikhil Rama, Ben Schmidt, Todd Clements, Brandon Robinson Thompson, Nathan Kimsey, Ross Fisher, Michael Hollick, Franklin Manchest

69 - Luke Brown, Martin Rohwer, Pieter Moolman, Darius van Driel, Sam Bairstow, Martin Vorster, Gerhard Pepler, Julien Brun, Benjamin Follett-Smith, Mikael Lindberg, Oliver Bekker, Adrian Otaegui, Jeong Weon Ko, Rhys Enoch, Kyle Barker, Calum Hill, Richard Sterne, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Ewen Ferguson

70 - Kayle Wykes, Deon Germishuys, Matthew Spacey, Jacques P de Villiers, Manuel Elvira, Ryggs Johnston, Heinrich Bruiners, Jacques Blaauw, Dylan Naidoo, Pierre Pineau, Kyle McClatchie, Kazuma Kobori, Musiwalo Nethunzwi, MJ Viljoen, Andy Sullivan, Freddy Schott, Thomas Aiken, Richie Ramsay, Ryan Van Velzen, Alejandro Del Rey, Marcel Siem

71 - Ivan Cantero, Graham van der Merwe, Zander Lombard, Jean Hugo, Jordan Gumberg, Johannes Veerman, Ethan Smith, Lyle Pedro, Luke Jerling, Stals Swart, CJ du Plessis, Rupert Kaminski, Jens Dantorp, Matthew Southgate, Casey Jarvis, Dan Bradbury, Darren Fichardt, Niklas Lemke, Makhetha Mazibuko

72 - Jastice Mashego, Scott Jamieson, Nicolas Colsaerts, Yurav Premlall, Jonathan Broomhead, Trevor Mahoney, Jake Redman, Robson Chinhoi, Dylan Mostert, Jovan Rebula, Lucas Bjerregaard, John Parry, Ricardo Gouveia, Trevor Fisher Jnr

73 - Joel Girrbach, Ruan Korb, Joel Moscatel, Combrinck Smit, Matthew Baldwin, Matthias Schwab, Haydn Porteous, Hayden Griffiths, Louis de Jager, Simon Forsstrom, Veer Ahlawat

74 - Neil Schietekat, Peter Karmis, Rafa Cabrera Bello, JC Ritchie, David Ravetto

75 - JJ Senekal, Albert Venter, Keenan Davidse, Corey Shaun

76 - Danie Van Niekerk, Keith Horne, Ivan Verster, Ruan Conradie, Lyle Rowe

77 - Keelan van Wyk, Anthony Michael

78 - Stefan Wears-Taylor

81 - Tristin Galant

83 - Stephen Ferreira