Rowan Lester and Liam Grehan find themselves on opposite sides of the provisional cut mark after the opening round of the Sunshine Tour’s Stella Artois Players Championship at Randpark Golf Club in Johannesburg.
Lester, who’s made the cut in six of his last seven Sunshine Tour starts, got off to a good start as he birdied three holes on the back nine – his opening nine – with just one bogey to make the turn at -2.
Unfortunately, a cold putter on the front side held him back as he traded a two-putt par-5 birdie on the fourth with bogeys on one and seven, before a birdie on the par-4 closing hole got him into the clubhouse in 69 blows and sharing 50th place on -2.
Grehan, who made a promising start to his maiden Sunshine Tour campaign and recorded a T9 finish in his fourth start, has found the going tough of late, but with three birdies and a bogey in his first 14 holes, appeared to be turning the corner before a costly double bogey on the par-3 15th knocked him back to level-par.
He traded a birdie on 16 with a bogey on 17 and finds himself tied for 76th after his level-par 71, and will need to shoot a round in the 60s to make his first cut in nine starts.
At the top of the leaderboard, South African Karabo Mokoena overcame an early bogey to bridie 10 of his final 16 holes and take a two-stroke lead at -9. Five players share second on -7, with a further four a shot further adrift at -6.
FULL SCORING
