Wayne Stroebel set the early benchmark at five under, but the 19-year-old Ermelo golfer commanded a share of pole position alongside his Wanna Be A Champion Academy stable-mate when he fired five birdies in the afternoon for a flawless 67.
Martin Dewhurst from England finished one off the pace, while Visser and Stroebel lead by two from a large group at three under that features Gary Player Class of 2017 member Michael Dreyer, Thriston Lawrence, Quintin Crause, Jonathan Waschefort, Paul De Beer, Divan Marais, Matt Bright and Italian amateur Philip Geerts.
Visser made a charge up the leaderboard with three successive birdies from the second and a further gain at the eighth took him to the turn in four under. After six straight pars on the homeward loop, he holed a superb trap-shot at 16 to match the clubhouse target.
The Q-School hopeful was confident about his game after his first round showing.
“In the last few weeks I’ve felt that I’ve been coming into some form and everything worked together well today,” Visser said. “I hope I can carry this form through to the next two rounds to cement a place at the top or near the top on Wednesday.
“I played really well from tee to fairway to green. I hit 10 fairways and 14 greens in regulation, so the driver worked well and I gave myself a lot of birdie chances. My distance control into the greens was good and that’s why I was close to the flag for most of the day. And I made a lot of putts from around 10 to 12 feet, so the putter was also nice and hot.”
Visser also made some excellent pars, including a great save at 11.
“The fact that I didn’t drop any shots is significant,” he said. “I missed a few birdie chances, but I made some great pars to keep the momentum going. Like at 11, where I hit my tee shot in the hazard. I had to dig deep and execute well to save par. Pulling it off gave me an extra boost of confidence.”
Stroebel also enjoyed a trio of birdies from the second and turned four under with another gain at nine, but he lost the advantage of birdies at 10 and 12 with bogeys at 11 and 13. A seventh birdie at the par-five 15th left him a strong position on day one.
Dewhurst surrendered just one shot for his 68, but Lawrence was left ruing a triple, a double and a bogey on his back nine after getting to four under on the opening stretch. He redeemed himself by offsetting six dropped shots with three birdies and an eagle at 15 to stay in the hunt.
First Round Result
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs are indicated as AMA:
67 - Wayne Stroebel, Leon Visser AMA
68 - Martin Dewhurst (ENG)
69 - Thriston Lawrence, Philip Geerts AMA (ITA), Michael Dreyer, Quintin Crause, Jonathan Waschefort, Paul de Beer, Divan Marais, Matt Bright
70 - Bradley van Biljon AMA, JP Rousseau AMA, Gregg Blainey (ENG), Paul Boshoff, Coert Groenewald, Craigen Clough AMA, Alrich Labuschagne, Andi Dill, David Ashley (ENG)
71 - Juan Langeveld, Mpho Mafishe, Brandon Lydon AMA, Clinton Grobler, Shaun van Tonder, Christopher van der Merwe AMA
72 - Aneel Kallan AMA, Jadrick Fourie AMA, Ruan Korb AMA, Justin Turner, Dean O'Riley, Werner van Wyk, Jacques de Villiers
73 - Gilson Filho (BRA), Stephan du Toit AMA, Jabulane Mabilane, Gary Daoust (BEL), Kyle Barker, Fanie Wolmarans AMA
74 - Chase Paton AMA, Heinrich Penzhorn AMA, Cameron Gunning, Bradley Diggeden AMA, Dylan Docherty, Terence Boardman, Dwayne Coetzee, CJ Levey, Christian Basson AMA, Richard O'Donovan (IRE), Michael Kok AMA, Joubert van Eeden, Richard Tsai AMA, Vaughn van Deventer AMA
75 - Shalan Govender, Steven Jacobs AMA, Duane Keun, WM Coetzee AMA, Norman Beggs, Jihwan Yeom AMA, Matthew Spacey, Ruhan van Dijk AMA, Duan Nagel AMA, Sam Metcalfe AMA
76 - Adam Baker AMA, JP Schmidt AMA, Luke Brown AMA, Arno Pretorius AMA, Pedro August, Shaun Barrett AMA, Conway Kunneke, Estiaan Conradie, Vico Kuhn, Tristan Nel AMA, John McClean (NIR), Andrew van der Knaap AMA, Shane Irwin AMA (IRE)
77 - Stephane Van Neer AMA (COD), Dylan Morton AMA, David Rebelo AMA, Nqobani Ndabambi, Dean du Plessis AMA, Jack Duthie AMA, Ruan Conradie, Dylan O'Leary, Bryce Myburgh, Ruan Botha AMA, Marco de Beer AMA, Stephan de Beer, Liam Bezuidenhout AMA, Thabi Ngcobo
78 - Reinard Vermeulen AMA, Lincon Cele, Michael Schutz, Matt Wollmann (ZIM)
79 - Sam Botham (ENG), Clinton Cheia
80 - Niel Theron AMA, Gareth Anderson AMA
81 - Albert Visser AMA
82 - Saishrien Rasen AMA, Cameron Gurr AMA
86 - Divan van Der Merwe AMA
89 - Pierre le Roux AMA, Donald Makhafola AMA
91 - Phillip de Waal AMA
WDN - Heinrich Bronkhorst AMA
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
