Henrik Stenson happy with patient start to Nedbank Challenge
Thursday 10 November 2016 18:19, UK
Henrik Stenson was delighted that his patience was rewarded with a competitive score on the opening day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
Only 20 of the 72-player field broke par in the first round at the Gary Player Country Club, and nobody managed to keep a bogey off their card as a tough layout combined with blustery conditions to make scoring tricky.
Stenson was one over par after seven holes, but he holed a morale-boosting putt for birdie at the eighth and followed it up with another at the ninth before he responded to a bogey at 13 with three consecutive birdies from the 15th.
The Race to Dubai leader did well to get up and down for par at the last after going long and left with his approach, and he signed for a three-under 69 which left him just a shot off the lead - and six ahead of Danny Willett, his closest rival in the Order of Merit.
"I'm very pleased," said the Swede. "It was below average on the front nine and I hit a good shot into eight and drained a nice birdie putt on nine to turn in red figures, but it was a struggle on the front nine.
"I hit it nicely on the back nine and rounded off with some good birdies on 15, 16, 17 and a good par save on last. I'm very happy with that round.
"It was blowing a bit harder than it normally does, and you would like to think that it should be easy to predict where the wind is, but it swirls just as much when there's more of it.
"It is a tricky golf course. We're playing in altitude, and if you don't get it right, it can easily go away from you. I was hanging in there and got rewarded for my patience and a couple good shots coming in."
Stenson can be crowned as European No 1 for the second time with a victory in Sun City if Willett finishes outside the top 10, and the Swede admitted it would be a relief to wrap up the title ahead of next week's finale in Dubai.
"It would be nice to wrap up the Race to Dubai, but I just want to play as well as I can for these two weeks and see where it takes me," he added.
"Of course, you're always going to look a little bit and see what the other guys are doing, but at the end of the day I've got to focus on my game and I managed to do that, so I'm happy with today's work."
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