PERTH PLAYER SURGES THREE CLEAR WITH BRILLIANT 66

YOUNG CLICKETY-CLICKS TO LEAD 

FIRST Q ROUND IN SOUTH AFRICA

Perth's Daniel Young was the toast of the Scottish Golf Union squad in South Africa tonight (Sunday), when he opened up a three-shot lead with a brilliant six-under-par round of 66 in the first qualifying round for the match-play stages of the South African open amateur golf championship at Hermanus Golf Club on the Western Cape.An eagle 3 at the long second settled Young, pictured above, and he built on that with birdies galore."It was a good round of golf. I played nicely and stuck to my game plan pretty much throughout the day and hit a lot of good iron shots. And I obviously rolled in a couple of putts which was nice," said Young, a member at Craigie Hill Golf club and winner of the Cameron Corbett Vase SGU Order of Merit 72-hole tournament in 2012 and 2013.

"It is a course that suits my game. The greens are running perfectly so you could make some putts. So I figured I just needed to give myself a few chances.

"I hit a nice drive down the fairway at the second hole and it was a good second shot that set up an eagle 3.
"It was a tough flag position, tucked back right but I hit a nice second shot right into the heart of the green and fortunately the putt fell in."
Young won several times on the American college golf circuit during four years at Lynn University, Boca Raton in Florida
Scott Gibson (Southerness) is the next best Scot on one-under 71, followed by British boys champion Ewen Ferguson (Bearsden) and Jamie Savage (Cawder) on 73.Scottish schoolboys champion Connor Syme, son of the Dumfries and Co club pro, is on 75 with Ben Kinsley from St Andrews on 76

Defending champion Thriston Lawrence had a tough day in which he struggled to a four-over-par 76.

"I didn't feel the pressure at all," he said afterwards. "I played well today – I just made two mistakes with two double bogeys. I'm happy with my game but hopefully I'll play better  tomorrow. I won't be changing much. I'm hitting the ball well so hopefully I'll just keep up with my gameplan and roll in a few putts."

South Africa's number one ranked amateur, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, finished the day in joint sixth spot with a 71. "It was good out there. I played really well. I hit some greens but didn't make too many putts. But I played decent, solid golf so I'm happy about the round."

The 64 players with the lowest 36-hole aggregates  at the conclusion of Monday's second qualifying round will go forward to the match-play stages of the championship.

FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND

Players from S Africa unless stated

Par 72

66 D Young (Sco)

69 R Sinclair

70 T Strydom, J Rebula, H du Plessis

71 J Germishuys, C Bezuidenhout, R Kaminski, J du Preez, A Carlsson, S Gibson (Sco), C Mansfield, T Watson

72 R Bougas, N J Arnoldi, W Janse van Rensburg, M Steyn, H van Waart

73 G Fransman, H Germishuys, E Ferguson (Sco), J Savage (Sco), C Moralee, G Royston, P Boshoff, A Scholtz, A Lones, Z Lombard

SELECTED SCORES

74 C Spencer-White (Wal).

75 C Syme (Sco)76 B Kinsley (Sco).77 T Tree (Eng).