Everything you need to know from the first day at Houghton Golf Club.
Wenyi Ding and Jordan Smith shot bogey-free opening rounds to lead the way while Jeong weon Ko and Jovan Rebula contributed excellent eagles on day one of the 2025 Joburg Open.
Here is everything you need to know from the first day at Houghton Golf Club.
Duo rise to the top
Ding and Smith each made seven birdies and no bogeys in their 63s in the morning to share the clubhouse lead on seven under par. Ding, who has impressed in his rookie season after earning a DP World Tour card as the inaugural winner of the Global Amateur Pathway ranking last year, started both nines with back-to-back birdies, while two-time DP World Tour winner Smith joined Ding at the top courtesy of a superb approach into the eighth which set up a tap-in birdie.
Rebula shows off short-game skills
Ernie Els' nephew Rebula opted to chip from just off the fifth green and judged it to perfection, holing out for an extraordinary eagle...
He had earlier survived a scare as his eight-foot par putt at the second did a full 360 around the hole before dropping.
Brandon battles back
Brandon Robinson Thompson did not get off to the best of starts on Thursday, opening with three successive bogeys to give himself a bit of a mountain to climb. But the Englishman responded brilliantly, reeling off a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth hole to return to level par before mixing three more birdies with a bogey in the rest of his round to finish the day on two under.
Del Rey's delightful recovery
Alejandro del Rey had to play his second shot at the fourth hole from among the trees but that did not stop him from producing a beauty. He went straight for the flag and landed his ball within ten feet of the hole. What a shot.
And he nearly made what would have been a memorable hole-in-one too...
No putter required for Ko
Ko pulled off one of the shots of the day at the 13th as he holed out from the fairway for a magnificent eagle. The Frenchman pitched it well past the flag before spinning it back down the hill and into the cup for a rare eagle on that hole.
