Kyle de Beer made an eagle, three birdies and a bogey on Tuesday to lead the 10 qualifiers into the Sunshine Tour’s Blue Label Challenge which gets underway at Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday.
The qualifier was, like the tournament proper, played with a modified stableford scoring system. That allocates five points for an eagle, two for a birdie, none for a par, minus one for a bogey, and minus three for a double-bogey or worse. That clearly encourages attacking play.
And De Beer attacked from the outset, making an eagle on the first hole, the par-five which fans of the Nedbank Golf Challenge will know as the 10th during that tournament. He made birdies on five, 11 and 14, and dropped a shot on the 17th – the par-four stroke one which is the eighth when the course is played the other way round.
One point behind De Beer was Toto Thimba Jnr, and six players shared third with seven points. They were Richie O’Donavan, Mutahi Kibugu, Travis Ladner, Clancy Waugh, Chris Cannon and Omar Sandys. Keelan van Wyk and Ronald Rugumayo were on six points and were the last of the 10 qualifiers.
