Dutch golfer Lauren Holmey fired an opening round of 67 (-6) at Modderfontein Golf Club to lead the Joburg Ladies Open at the end of the first day.
The 20-year-old, who began her round from the 10th tee, made a bogey on her first hole but soon found her groove making a birdie on 12 before rolling in five consecutively on holes 15 through to one.
Holmey dropped another shot on the third but bounced back with a birdie on the fifth before another bogey on seven.
However, the LET rookie finished in style with back-to-back birdies on eight and nine for her round of six-under-par.
“I think I have to thank my putter for all of the birdies! It was a really good day on the greens,” said the LET Access Series graduate.
“Other than that, I just played according to my game plan and I stuck to it. It was a pretty good day, and the putter was behaving nicely.
“The putts where I made the five birdies in a row were pretty much all within 20 feet. I had good second shots to the green, so that was nice. I picked my zone quite well. I had easy uphill putts with not too many breaks. It was pretty nice and my first time getting so many birdies in a row.”
This is only Holmey’s second LET event since earning her card at the end of last year, after she teed it up at the Lalla Meryem Cup a few weeks ago.
But the rookie is enjoying her start to life on Tour especially as she is travelling with her mum and dad by her side.
She explained: “I’m loving every moment. It is my second LET tournament. I’m enjoying every moment and it’s a lot of fun. Everybody is really nice, greatly organised and it’s a pleasure to come here.
“Tomorrow, I hope to keep playing like today. The game plan doesn’t change, unless the weather is different which it might be but we’ll see. It’s the same game plan, I’ll try to get the same putts in and I want to have a lot of fun out there. It’s a lot of fun being a rookie on the LET and playing at this level.
“I have my dad and my mum with me, I have my own little team. Having my dad on the bag means having someone that is always there for you and a great support for me. We have been making a great team for the past year now and it’s working.”
Two players sit in a share of second place on the leaderboard with England’s Alice Hewson alongside Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby.
LET winner Hewson fired a bogey-free round of 68 (-5) after getting off to a hot start making four birdies in her opening five holes.
The Englishwoman, who finished in T3 at last year’s tournament, added a further birdie on the 12th hole to seal a round of five-under-par.
“It was a nice start out there, I got off to a really quick one,” said Hewson, who is fourth in the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol.
“I birdied four of my first five holes and I was really solid to start with. I hit the first in two and then had a nice easy two-putt. I hit some shots nice and tight into two and three.
“I just missed on four unfortunately, but again hit five in two and then made a two-putt birdie. I calmed down a little bit for the rest of the round but that’s okay – hopefully more like the beginning tomorrow.
“I didn’t hit every shot perfectly today. I didn’t hit everything as we planned. I had a bit of luck and didn’t end up behind any trees or anything, but we plotted our way around the course really nicely and prevented any of the bogeys from the card and never really gave ourselves opportunity to make bogey. It’s always nice to have a bogey-free round.”
While Denmark’s Soenderby only had one blemish on her card on day one with a bogey on six and rolled in birdies on holes one, five, seven, eight, 13 and 14.
“It was a very steady round,” said the Dane. “I didn’t make a lot of mistakes. I just kept my pulse low and played it shot by shot. I took the birdies where they are and got two good putts.
“I had a lot of really good up and downs today. You really just have to hit the shots like you mean them and don’t hesitate. My game is going in the right direction, I had a rocky start in Kenya but did some really good mental work the last two weeks, so I feel really good.
“I’ve just been working on doing more mindfulness and working with getting more space in my mind and getting the heart rate down. It’s helpful. Tomorrow is the same game plan. It worked pretty well today.”
Four players sit in a tie for fourth place with Sweden’s Moa Folke, Austria’s Christine Wolf, England’s Liz Young and South Africa’s Tandi McCallum all on four-under-par.
One shot further back are the quartet of Italy’s Alessandra Fanali, England’s Lily May Humphreys, Austria’s Emma Spitz and France’s Agathe Sauzon after they all produced rounds of three-under-par.
The second round begins on Thursday morning at 7.00 am local time and there will be a cut at the end of the day.
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