Cape Town - Callum Mowat posted his best score as a professional as his 10-under-par 62 was by some distance the lead after the first round on Wednesday of the R700,000 Sun Windmill Challenge at Bloemfontein Golf Club.
He carded an eagle and eight birdies on his way to a four-stroke advantage over Jean-Paul Strydom and Anthony Michael, and, while that doesn’t top the 60 he once shot as an amateur, it was good enough to put a smile on his face after a horror run of four missed cuts in his last five tournaments according to the Sunshine Tour website.
“Some things just weren’t going my way, and that made me feel as if I was playing badly,” he said. “But I did know that I was hitting the ball well, so I just had to keep patient. And it all happened today.”
He started his round on the 10th of the 6,678-metre Bloemfontein Golf
It was a wave that took him all the way home with six more birdies. “One of
“I’ve set myself six birdies per round, and that’s usually the sort of score that is right up there. So if I make those kinds of numbers, I should be in with a shout.”
If he can continue keeping errors off his card now, he will make life difficult for his pursuers: A further shot back from the pair sharing second are Theunis Spangenberg, Colin Nel, Makhetha Mazibukoand Rourke van der Spuy, all on five-under.
Mazibuko is on his home track, and another couple of rounds like his first would put him in the frame, especially if Mowat in unable to keep the roll going. But he’s got his mind around the problem he had. “I’ve just tried to block out the fact that it’s just been one or two bad holes that have been leading to bad scores,” he said. “I had a good positive