Richie Ramsay’s last-ditch bid to qualify for next week’s Race to Dubai finale got off to a purposeful start in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, the penultimate event in the European Tour’s lucrative Final Series, in South Africa.
While Felipe Aguilar, Ross Fisher and Jeunghun Wang set the early pace in Sun City with four-under 68s, Ramsay tucked himself into a seven-way tie for fourth with a 69 on a tricky day of gusting winds which saw just 20 players from a field of 72 dip below the par.
Ramsay currently sits in 69th place on the European circuit’s money list and, with Russell Knox and Graeme McDowell both forfeiting their places in next week’s 60-man Dubai showpiece, the Aberdonian needs to climb up to 62nd on the rankings to secure a tee-time for the end-of-season bonanza.
Leaving himself just a shot off the lead in this £5.6 million event after day one certainly helped those prospects.
“It was a really good round and I love the golf course here,” said Ramsay, who won the South African Open back in 2009. “I haven't been here before so this is my debut. All in all, it was a really good day. I just need to sharpen up the short game a touch and then chase another good score.”
Ramsay was joined on the three-under mark by a posse of players which included Scottish Open winner Alex Noren, Ryder Cup rookie Chris Wood and Henrik Stenson, the reigning Open champion.
Stenson, who currently leads the Race to Dubai, can be crowned the tour’s No 1 for the second time in his career if he wins this week and nearest rival, Danny Willett, finishes outside the top-two. Willett, the Masters champion, continues to struggle with his game and a 75 left him well down the field. Stenson, in contrast, conjured a late flurry and three birdies over his closing four holes propelled him into contention.
“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,” said Stenson.
Marc Warren’s hopes of making it to Dubai suffered an early blow with an opening 75 while compatriot David Drysdale had to settle for a 76. Germany’s Martin Kaymer, the two-time major champion, struggled to an 81 and finished at the bottom of the pile.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here