Ruan Groenewald made just one bogey on Monday on his way to a seven-under-par 65 in the first round of the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour’s Race to Q-School #3 at Randpark Bushwillow.
Together with his eagle and six birdies, that gave him a share of the lead with Gregory Mckay, who also dropped just one stroke as the duo took a one-stroke lead over amateur Kyle Mclachlan. Louis Botha, Nicholaus Frade, Arno Pretorius, Harry Konig and Ricky Hendler were in a share of fourth on five-under-par 67.
Groenewald got off to a flying start with four birdies in a row from the first hole, and that gave him an advantage he was not to relinquish throughout the rest of the round. He reached the run without picking up any more strokes, and he made his bogey immediately after the turn with a dropped shot on the par-four 10th. But he made eagle-three on the 12th, and followed that immediately with a birdie on the par-three 13th. He picked up one more shot with a birdie on the 16th.
Mckay made birdies on one, three, five, seven and nine, but he dropped his shot with a bogey on the eighth. He made two more birdies immediately after the turn on 10 and 11, and that completed his scoring.
The Bushwillow layout was pretty unforgiving on the day, and only Jade Buitendag with his four-under 68 in a share of ninth was able to turn in a bogey-free scorecard.
