Macnab leads field of winners at Tournament of Champions

The excitement around Caitlyn Macnab’s potential in the professional arena moved up a level on Thursday as she claimed the first-round lead in the Sunshine Tour’s mixed event – the Waterfall City Tournament of Champions supported by Attacq and WCMC.

Macnab opened with a round of four-under-par 68 on Royal Johannesburg’s East Course, set up as a nine-hole composite course for this event, to lead by one over the field.

Caitlyn Macnab (-4) leads the way at Waterfall City Tournament of Champions supported by Attacq after round 1 ahead of fellow @SLadiesTour pros Cara Gorlei and Danielle du Toit. 📊 🔥 #TournamentOfChampions #WaterfallCity #Attacq pic.twitter.com/8diSFdvBjp

It was in fact the Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals who led the way on day one as her nearest challengers are Danielle du Toit and Cara Gorlei following their rounds of 69.

Kyle de Beer is the leading Sunshine Tour professional with an opening round of two-under-par 70, with Herman Loubser – last season’s Sunshine Tour Players’ Player of the Year – in a group of Sunshine Tour professionals who signed for rounds of 71.

The field for this tournament is drawn from, among other exemption categories, winners on the Sunshine Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour over the past season.

Macnab earned her way into this field as The R&A Rookie of the Year on the Sunshine Ladies Tour this past season following her three top-five finishes on the Tour.

Just one shot behind her, Du Toit said she is revelling in competing in a mix field of champions this week.

“It’s such a great experience to play with so many champions. That to me is the special part of the tournament. It is the cream of the crop, the best of the best, so we can really test ourselves against each other, regardless of which Tour you play on,” she said after a round of challenging weather including a lightning delay.

“I had a really good round today, especially with the conditions. It was cold, windy and even raining at one point, which is weird in the middle of winter in Gauteng. My game was precise and consistent and a couple of putts fell, so that was great. I am one shot behind Caitlyn but there is so much more golf to be played. It’s nice to see three women at the top of the leaderboard. I hope that we can keep up the challenge.”

SCORES

68 - Caitlyn Macnab

69 - Cara Gorlei

69 - Danielle du Toit

70 - Kyle De Beer

71 - Herman Loubser

71 - Gerhard Pepler, Pieter Moolman, Luis Carrera

72 - Jean Hugo

72 - Jaco Prinsloo, Doug McGuigan, Deon Germishuys, Nobuhle Dlamini, Samuel Simpson, Justin Walters, Gabrielle Venter

73 - Haydn Porteous

73 - Warwick Purchase, Daniel van Tonder

74 - Charlotte Millard

74 - Malcolm Mitchell, Tandi McCallum, Altin van der Merwe

75 - Christiaan Burke

75 - Austin Bautista, Joe Sullivan

76 - Jacques Kruyswijk

76 - Lisa Coetzer, Oliver Bekker

77 - Jannie Botha

79 - Nikhil Rama

81 - Nadia van der Westhuizen

83 - Joshua Koekemoer