Bentley powers to Glendower lead

Greg Bentley of Zimbabwe powered himself to the top of the leaderboard in round one of the BET Glendower tournament when he shot an impressive seven-under-par 65, a shot ahead of Musiwalo Nethunzwi, on Tuesday.

The Zimbabwean made four birdies on the front nine, and two more on the back nine were accompanied by an eagle on the par-five 13 but a bogey on 12 spoiled what could have been a flawless round.

“You’ve got to bring your a-game on a course like this,” Bentley said after his round, “I mean, they don’t host the BMW SA Open here for nothing. This is a tough track and I am happy to finish the way I did.

“You know it’s been a while since I have been among the leaders so it feels good to go into the final round up there at the top,” he said.

Lurking behind Bentley is member of the Gary Player Class of 2017-18 Nethunzwi, who singled out his short game as catalyst to the solid opening round at the home of the BMW SA Open. He started off modestly with pars on his first three holes before making a bogey on the fourth, and that was followed by yet another par on five. Consecutive birdies from the sixth to the ninth signalled his intentions and that pair of birdies and the eagle he made on 13 took him to second, ahead of the in-form Wynand Dingle.

“My short game,” he said about the area of his game which has seen him rack up two top-10 finishes in three starts. “In the last two weeks we (GPC) had a boot camp at the World of Golf and the guys I worked with there really helped me improve my short game. So, for me, putting in more time in my short game has been helping,” Nethunzwi said.

Following Tuesday’s finish along with the good results he has been seeing in the past few weeks, Nethunzwi feels the elusive victory on the BET circuit might be on the horizon.

In third position, Dingle is on five-under-par 67 and is still brimming with confidence following his win at Houghton a fortnight ago. While admitting to having struggled a bit at Glendower on opening day, the 33-year old was a happy man at the end of the round. “It looks like five-under has been my opening round lately,” Dingle quipped, referring to the opening score he signed for in Houghton.

“I struggled a bit on the back nine; struggled to get the momentum going but I played nice golf afterwards. I feel I left a few out there today but like I said before, that win (at Houghton) certainly gave me some momentum and confidence and I have been playing nicely. So, with today’s score, I look forward to the final round here,” Dingle said. He shares that spot with amateur Christo Lamprecht.

Lying fifth is Jacques P de Villiers on four-under while Combrinck Smit, Bradford Vaughn, Stuart Smith and member of Gary Player Class of 2017-18 Jacquin Hess share sixth on three-under.