Louis de Jager opened with a three-under-par 68 on Thursday in the first round of the European Tour’s Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown at Aphrodite Hills Resort in Paphos, Cyprus.
His six birdies and three bogeys left him three shots behind the first-round leader Robert MacIntyre of Scotland in a tournament with two cuts: The 105 players will be reduced to 32 after two rounds, with scores reset both then and ahead of Sunday’s 16-man showdown. De Jager is inside the mark for the first cut, but will need to keep going to stay there.
Haydn Porteous carded a one-under-par 70 together with Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent and rookie Wilco Nienaber. Zander Lombard was one-over and Garrick Higgo four-over.
MacIntyre, last season’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year on the European Tour, finished in a share of third over the same Aphrodite Hills Resort layout in the Cyprus Open last week and continued his good form with six birdies in a flawless round.
That put him a shot clear of Belgium’s Thomas Detry, Wales’ Jamie Donaldson, Swedish pair Rikard Karlberg and Joakim Lagergren, France’s Romain Langasque, Finland’s Sami Välimäki and China’s Ashun Wu.
With reporting from The European Tour