It was pretty close to a perfect start for Christiaan Bezuidenhout on Thursday in the European Tour’s DP World Championship as he carded a five-under-par 67 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates to be in a share of second place.
He was two shots off the pace set by Rory McIlroy, who had a subline front nine of 31, despite a bogey on the ninth. McIlroy’s 65 had him clear of Bezuidenhout, last week’s winner and current Joburg Open champion Joachim B Hansen of Denmark and Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen. There were 10 players on four-under in a share of fifth place, including world number one and Race to Dubai leader Collin Morikawa, the Open champion.
Bezuidenhout, the South African Open champion, started the season-ending tournament with a pair of birdies on the opening holes to get his campaign off to the best possible start. With his approach play accurate and consistent, he had two short putts for those birdies, and it was no surprise that he finished that opening round ranked second in the field with his 26 putts at 1.5 per hole.
He had a 23-footer for birdie on five, which he made, and then he bit his approach into the greenside bunker on nine, from where he was unable to get up and down. He bounced back from his only bogey of the day with a 42-footer for birdie on the 12th, and then he made two birdies in a row on 15 and 16 from about 15 feet to round out his scoring.
Dean Burmester made four birdies and a bogey on his way to a solid opening three-under-par 69 and a share of 15th place. Justin Harding had four birdies and three bogeys in his opening 71 for a share of 32nd while Garrick Higgo carded a one-over 73 to be in a share of 40th in the 53-man field.
