Estiaan Conradie and Sweden’s Fredrik From made 13 birdies and an eagle between them on Thursday in the opening fourball play of the Sunshine Tour’s Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship at Blue Valley Golf Estate.
The betterball scoring freed them both up and they made just four pars without dropping a shot to fire a 15-under-par 57 to lead by three from Martin Rohwer and Merrick Bremner on 12-under-par 60. One stroke further back were Jaco Prinsloo and Clinton Grobler, Heinrich Bruiners and Jacquin Hess and Luca Filippi and Ryan van Velzen, all on 11-under.
Conradie was supposed to play the tournament with his brother, but Ruan got into the DP World Tour event this week. The South Africa-Sweden alliance was cobbled together at the last moment. “It worked very well for us,” said Conradie. “Freddie is a fairways and greens kind of player, and I’m inherently more aggressive. That frees me up when he hits the green on a par-three, for instance, and I can hunt for the flag.”
It was that freedom which brought them their eagle on the third hole after they had started their round on the 10th. “I hit a big drive in there,” said Conradie. “I had an eight-iron in, and Freddie had about a five-iron. He hit his to the middle of the green and I was above the flag. He left his eagle putt at a safe birdie distance and I nailed mine.”
With the change in the normal strokeplay format of tournaments, players will play foursomes – or alternate shot – in the second round, and revert to betterball in the final round.
“I know Fredrik quite well, although we’re not close friends or anything,” said Conradie. “But his play certainly helps in this format, and, with the foursomes tomorrow, he’ll be teeing off on the even holes while I start on the odd holes. That give us the chance to score well on three of the par-threes, as well as use my distance off the tees on three of the par-fives.”
