{"id":18517,"date":"2013-03-01T14:21:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/fichardt-tames-17-holes-in-tshwane\/"},"modified":"2013-03-01T14:21:04","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T12:21:04","slug":"fichardt-tames-17-holes-in-tshwane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/fichardt-tames-17-holes-in-tshwane\/","title":{"rendered":"Fichardt tames 17 holes in Tshwane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Darren<\/a><\/p>\n

Darren Fichardt is hunting another European Tour victory after taking the first round lead in the Tshwane Open. Photo: Petri Oeschger\/Sunshine Tour<\/p>\n

PRETORIA, South Africa \u2013 With almost fifty per cent of his victories coming in either February or March, it\u2019s no wonder that Darren Fichardt likes to get the maximum benefit out of this part of the season.<\/p>\n

Fichardt is hunting his second victory this month after opening with a seven-under-par 65 to lead the first round of the Tshwane Open at The Els Club, Copperleaf, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Pretoria professional teed off on the 10th and birdied that, then made four more birdies to the turn, and came home with a further three birdies and only one bogey.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying well, putting well, chipping well and everything is good, so my confidence is high,\u201d he said of his one-stroke lead, and the win and seventh-place finish he\u2019s enjoyed in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s Bjorn Akesson is his nearest challenger, with England\u2019s Gary Lockerbie and David Howell, Chile\u2019s Mark Tullo, India\u2019s Jeev Milkha Singh and South Africa\u2019s Jean Hugo all on five under.<\/p>\n

Darren Clarke opened with a three under 69, Michael Campbell a 72 and Jose Maria Olazabal a 76, including a second nine of 42.<\/p>\n

For all the talk of the length of this golf course, there were mixed reactions from the top of the leaderboard on day one.<\/p>\n

Fichardt birdied the par-five fourth hole, which at 626 metres is the longest hole in European Tour history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can almost not get up there for three never mind two,\u201d said Fichardt. \u201cI hit driver, three iron, seven iron and holed a 12-foot putt.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I mean, at that length, into the wind and with the fairways not running, it\u2019s not a fun hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after bringing down that monster, Fichardt bogeyed the tame par-four seventh. \u201cI birdied all the tough holes and then the easiest hole on the golf course I bogey \u2013 that\u2019s how this game is. It was a very weak hole, but the other 17 were good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darren Fichardt is hunting another European Tour victory after taking the first round lead in the Tshwane Open. Photo: Petri Oeschger\/Sunshine Tour PRETORIA, South Africa \u2013 With almost fifty per cent of his victories coming in either February or March, it\u2019s no wonder that Darren Fichardt likes to get the maximum benefit out of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-18517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}