Louie Oosthuizen had never gone bogey-free in the first round of the Nedbank Challenge.
He’s never opened with 63 either.
And he never found himself battling kidney stones before the event.
It was a tough few days for Oosthuizen, one of the home-country favorites this week at Sun City. Painful kidney stones knocked him out of the pro-am and as little as six hours before his Thursday tee time, he didn’t think he’d be able to show up on the first tee.
“This morning (Thursday) was very uncomfortable, but it sort of eased in. By six, seven o’clock in the morning it started getting a lot better,” Oosthuizen said. “This morning was just a little niggly, but I went up to the range, hit a few shots and it didn’t really bother me. It was more the walking fast that got it, so I just slowed everything down and it worked nicely.”
Nicely was an understatement. The old “beware the wounded player” phrase came into play. Oosthuizen put together a perfect round — nine birdies, nine pars for a dazzling nine-under par 63, good enough for a three-shot lead after day one.
His play wasn’t that surprising, he finished third a the recent WGC event in China. “I played good at HSBC two weeks ago. I know the swing is there, the putting is there,” Oosthuizen said. “I just need to be healthy to play.”
Louie wasn’t as hot on Friday.
As good as he was on Thursday, he was pretty average on Friday with an even-par effort of 72 that left him two shots short of 36-hole leader Zander Lombard. Friday was Lombard’s turn to go low. He finished with a seven-under par 64 that got him in the house at 11-under par.
Race To Dubai points leader Bernd Wiesberger kept himself in the running — he’s four-under heading into the weekend while Matt Fitzpatrick, fifth the Race standings, was also in a four-under par.
