South African Darren Fichardt birdied eight holes en route to a seven-under-par 65 and a one-shot first-round lead in the maiden Tshwane Open golf championship on Thursday.
The 37-year-old from Pretoria was continuing good recent form which saw him survive late final-round jitters to win the Africa Open by two strokes in East London two weeks ago.
A bogey five on the seventh — the third last hole for Fichardt as he started at the 10th — was the sole blemish over the par-72 7,791-yard Copperleaf Golf and Country Estate course.
He had five birdies on his front nine of a course designed by South African golf legend Ernie Els and a further three on his second nine, before he came to grief at the 390-yard seventh hole.
“What a funny game,” four-time European Tour winner Fichardt said. “I birdied all of the tough holes on this great course and then I bogey the easiest one. That is how this game is. I got a bad bounce off the tee and it went into a bunker. Despite a horrendous lie, I managed to get my second to the front edge of the green, chipped it close and missed the short putt.”
Fichardt is one stroke ahead of Bjorn Akesson of Sweden in the 1.5 million euro (US$1.970 million) tournament, with 237,750 euros going to the first winner of the sixth and final European Tour event in South Africa.
Among those two shots off the pace on 67 were English pair David Howell and Gary Lockerbie, South Africans Charl Coetzee and Jean Hugo, Chilean Mark Tullo and Indian Jeev Milkha Singh.
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland did best of the three Major winners in the 156-strong field by shooting a 69, Michael Campbell of New Zealand had an even-par 72 and there was a 76 from Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain.
Clarke won The Open two years ago, Campbell topped the 2005 US Open leaderboard, and 2012 Ryder Cup-winning captain Olazabal was the 1994 and 1999 US Masters champion.
Olazabal was facing a fight yesterday to make the cut, as was pre-Tshwane Open favorite Jaco van Zyl of South Africa, who hit a three-over 75 on Thursday.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB