Dubai: Mena Golf Tour regular Aaron Leitmannstetter was denied from joining South Africa’s Riekus Nortje atop the leaderboard with a double-bogey on the par-3, 15th on Wednesday.
Nortje kept it clean, going bogey-free en route to a 65 as his compatriot Jason Viljoen occupied solo third on five-under, one clear of a four-man pack which included Chile’s Antonio Costa, the winner of the recent Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen in Thailand.
Nortje, who racked up a second and ninth in the previous two events, said putting another flawless performance validated his recent form.
“I’ve been playing pretty solid and hitting the ball pretty well and it’s good to string together another bogey-free round,” explained Nortje.
German Leitmannstetter, on the other hand, fired a sizzling six-under 66 to lie just one shot off the pace after the opening round of The Roar at Waterkloof Golf Club.
He was quite pleased with his efforts despite running up a double bogey.
“Yeah, I’m very happy and I enjoyed it out there, I got off to a really good start, but unfortunately double-bogeyed the 15th which is not an easy par-three,” he said.
The Roar, the third and final co-sanctioned event between the Big Easy Tour and the MENA Tour, provides players an opportunity to cash in on the R500,000 (Dh127,323) prize money, as well as valuable world ranking points.
An initiative of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the Mena Golf Tour was created in 2011 with the aim of developing golf in the region. It is affiliated to R & A, the worldwide golf governing body based in the home of golf, St Andrews, and the Arab Golf Federation and enjoys the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status.
