De Lange on form at Silver Lakes
Pretoria golfer Keegan de Lange vaulted into a share of the lead at five-under-par at the completion of the rain-affected first round of the South African Amateur Championship at Silver Lakes Golf Estate on Monday.
Lighting and thunder brought a premature close to play on Sunday, but after play resuming at 6.30am on Monday, the 18-year-old Gauteng North golfer finished-off his round in fine fashion with two birdies and an eagle on the par five 18th hole.
De Lange began his round with three birdies on his opening nine, but bogeyed both par threes down the home straight.
The drops were offset by his fast finish, though, and De Lange joined early pacesetters Greig Marchbank and Daniel Young from Scotland in pole position.
De Lange, a Nomads National Order of Merit winner in 2013, had two close calls in 2014 and converted the runner-up finishes with a three-shot victory in the season-opening Dr Bam Nomads National Order of Merit in January.
He was a member of the victorious six-man side that defeated France in a two-day Test at the end of January and added the Free State Open title to his tally in February.
The Scots dominated on Sunday, but as it turned out, the country’s third-ranked amateur led a surge of South Africans up the leaderboard.
Southern Cape’s Tom Watson, Johan Germishuys from Boland, Central Gauteng’s Rupert Kaminski, Gareth Clements, David Meyers and Ryan Lane and former number one junior, Kyle McClatchie from Ekurhuleni, all finished a stroke behind the leaders.
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