Louis Oosthuizen leads by three at Nedbank Golf Challenge
Louis Oosthuizen leads by three in front of a home crowd in South Africa after round one of the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
He might have been struggling with illness before the start of the tournament, but Louis Oosthuizen looked as healthy as ever during round one of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in his home country of South Africa, cruising to a three-shot lead.
Oosthuizen took the Gary Player Country Club by storm on Thursday, shooting a faultless nine-under par score of 63, with nine birdies and no bogeys.
A win for Oosthuizen would move the South African up to second place in the Race to Dubai, with the DP World Tour Championship taking place in Dubai next week to decide the winner.
Belgian Thomas Detry currently sits in second place after shooting six-under par, while the young Italian star Guido Migliozzi sits a further shot back and in solo third.
"I just love this golf course," Oosthuizen told Sky Sports. "One of my first wins on the Sunshine Tour was here, the Dimension Data, and every time I play here it brings back a lot of good memories."
Oostuizen, grouped with American Kurt Kitayama and potential Rookie of the Year Robert MacIntyre, started his round with back-to-back birdies, before finding two more before the turn.
The birdie train continued on the back nine, as Oosthuizen made three birdies in a row, with another at 14 and his final birdie of the day at 17.
Defending champion Lee Westwood shot a bogey-free round of 68, to end round one in T4 with South African pair Ernie Els and Zander Lombard.
Shot of the Day
Shot of the day for round one goes to Lee Westwood as he defends his title in South Africa. The Englishman found himself with what looked like an impossible shot from the bunker, playing his third on a par-4 out of an extremely plugged lie.
The commentary team didn't think that Westwood would even get the ball out of the bunker, given that it was so close to the lip of the bunker, but what Westwood then pulled off was nothing short of special.
Take a bow @WestwoodLee!
What a shot from the Defending Champ.#NGC2019 #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/qhBAxjxJFH— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 14, 2019
