Cape Town - Dean Burmester had his father on the bag at Koro Creek Golf Estate on Thursday and family came first as he shot 64 to lead round one of the Vodacom Origins of Golf presented by Samsung.
“My dad has started caddying for me and we’re gearing up European Tour School, so it’s nice to have him on my bag for a special round like this. It happened recently that he was able to take some time off and help me. It’s nice having him around, because he has good competitive spirit and says the right things at the right time,” he said.
The 26-year-old has been the standout player on the Sunshine Tour this season and leads the Chase to the Investec Cup, reports the Sunshine Tour website.
He has three wins under his belt this year and began to contend for a fourth title by reaching eight-under-par on day one at Koro Creek.
“I putted nicely today and anytime you do that you’ll score well. It’s dry here and there hasn’t been much rain, so hitting fairways is important. My length off the tee helps, but my short game was on point as well, so I’m happy,” he said.
“It was good today. I started on 10 and had a solid couple of pars to get going. I made eagle on the par-five 14th and that got me going, but the wind picked up from there. Luckily I was playing most of the holes downwind, so it was quite nice to be able to dial in on the second nine,” he added.
Following him into the clubhouse were Vaughn Groenewald, Louis de Jager and Coert Groenewald, who all shared second place on six-under. PH McIntyre took up fifth place on five-under.
SCORES (RSA unless otherwise specified):
64 - Dean Burmester
66 - Coert Groenewald, Louis de Jager, Vaughn Groenewald
67 - PH McIntyre
68 - Rhys West, Toto Thimba (Jnr), Christiaan Basson
69 - Ryan Cairns (ZIM), Ryan Tipping, Lyle Rowe, Divan van den Heever, Andre Cruse, Jacques Kruyswijk, Ulrich van den Berg
70 - Glen de Waal (NAM), Anthony Michael, JJ Senekal, Dongkwan Kim (KOR), Henry Featherstone (ENG), Justin Harding, Hennie du Plessis, Jared Harvey, Mark Williams (ZIM), Jacques Blaauw, Andrew Curlewis, Ockie Strydom, Charl Coetzee, Gert Myburgh
71 - Drikus Bruyns, Zander Lombard, Stuart Smith (BOT), Theunis Spangenberg, Jacques de Villiers, Michael Hollick, Tyrone Ferreira, Mark Murless, Steven Ferreira, Neil Schietekat, Andrew Georgiou (CYP)
72 - Burger Heckroodt, Daniel Hammond, Rourke van der Spuy, Jaco Ahlers, Grant Muller, Tyrone Ryan, Dayne Moore (ZAM), Stephen Ferreira (POR), Brett Liddle, Peter Karmis, Desvonde Botes, Etienne Bond, Dylan Frittelli, Lindani Ndwandwe, Kevin Rundle
73 - Roberto Lupini, Makhetha Mazibuko, CJ du Plessis, Chris Swanepoel, Justin Turner, Wynand Dingle, Attie Schwartzel, Drikus van der Walt, Callie Swart, MJ Viljoen, Maritz Wessels, Derik Ferreira, Alex Haindl, Jean Hugo
74 - Otto van Greunen, Neil Cheetham (ENG), Michiel Bothma, Calvin Caldeira, Trevor Mahoney, Jacquin Hess, Le Roux Ferreira, Werner van Niekerk, Pieter Moolman, Mark Fensham, Jeff Inglis (ENG), Breyten Meyer, Lean Boezaart
75 - Louis Calitz, Gift Willy(NGA), TJ Bekker, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu (ZIM), Bryce Bibby, John Bele, Jaco Prinsloo, Colin Nel, Ruan de Smidt, Morne Buys, Russel Franz
76 - Bradford Vaughan, Dwayne Basson, Stefan Engell Andersen (KEN), Arthur Horne (SWZ), Teboho Sefatsa, Thanda Mavundla, Merrick Bremner, Thabang Simon
77 - Juan Langeveld, Derick Petersen, Callum Mowat, Wayne De Haas, Werner Kapp, Doug McGuigan
78 - Terence Salo, Stef Visage, Antonio Rosado (POR), Andrew Odoh (NGA), Jake Redman
79 - Allan Versfeld
80 - Greg Bentley (ZIM), Ruan Huysamen (NAM), Tyron Roelofsz
81 - Mpho Mafishe, Eddie Taylor
82 - Roy Da Costa (POR)