Darren Fichardt, playing at Kingsbarns Golf Links, fired two eagles, nine birdies and two bogeys to close with an 11-under 61 and take the opening lead at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The South African tied his lowest DP World Tour round.
“That was good. That was sweet. I started with a birdie on my first hole, the tenth hole, and then I hit a really poor three-putt the next hole,” said Fichardt.
“I was like ‘oh my goodness, it’s going to be a grind today’, and then made like a 100-foot putt for eagle on the next hole, and then the train just kept on going.
“It was really, really nice for everything just to fall like that.”
“I started thinking to myself, ‘is this a par 73 or 72?’. Because I know Gracey (Branden Grace) shot 60 the one year.
“I was trying to figure out what the par was, but I just kept on going and trying to do what I was doing. Yeah, that would have been nice, a little 59 on this track.”
Australian Cameron John, also playing Kingsbarns, shot a 62 featuring a single eagle and bogey and lies one shot further back.
The trio in third place at 9-under all managed to stay bogey-free. New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, playing at the Old Course, made two eagles at the par-5s 5 and 14. Scotland’s Scott Jamieson at Kingsbarns eagled the par-4 3rd and England’s Andrew Wilson, also at Kingsbarns eagled the par-3 8th.
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