By Michael Vlismas.
Caption: Kyle de Beer. (Photo by Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour).
Johannesburg (Gauteng) – Everybody wants to know the secret to Luke Brown’s current form on the Sunshine Tour. And quite frankly, so does Luke Brown.
“People have asked what I have done differently to suddenly be at the top of the leaderboard doing well. If I knew I would have done it four years ago,” Brown said after opening with a nine-under-par 63 at Country Club Johannesburg to share the first-round lead in the Telkom PGA Championship.
Kyle de Beer, winner of the recent Rwanda Open, joined him later in the afternoon with a 63 of his own.
Brown has found himself at the top of a leaderboard yet again in a season where he’s already won twice. And he insists he’s done nothing different this year.
“It’s not one specific thing, maybe just a little bit of everything adding up. I’ve always found that if you’re putting better, you make more of your par and birdie putts, so it doubles up everything,” he said.
He certainly took advantage of playing his home course and added two eagles in his round as he now chases a victory in one of South Africa’s most prestigious tournaments.
“The Telkom PGA Championship is the second-oldest tournament in South Africa. It’s iconic. Just to get to play in it is really nice, and to be playing well is even better. The driver worked well for me today. It’s not a long course, so if you hit it straight you can give yourself a lot of chances from there. So, with driving it well I gave myself a lot of wedge shots which I hit quite well.”
Brown and De Beer are one stroke clear of the trio of defending champion Deon Germishuys, Kieron van Wyk and Tyran Snyders.
Samuel Simpson, the current Sunshine Tour Courier Guy Order of Merit leader, opened with a 65 and is in a four-way tie with Louis Albertse, former Telkom PGA Championship winner George Coetzee, and Frenchman Pierre Viallaneix on seven under par.
“What a venue. To see it in full tournament condition is really cool,” said Simpson. “I enjoyed my group playing with Dean (Burmester) for the first time, and Louis (Albertse). They definitely pulled the group forward and we ended up all playing pretty solid and I drew off that. It’s a pretty special event and I am happy to be in the mix. Hopefully I can have another low round tomorrow.”