Another good round from Pablo Ereño. Another hint of what he is and can be. Another calling card. This time it happened at the debut of the CIRCA Cape Town Open of the HotelPlanner Tour in South Africa. The Madrid golfer, playing with an invitation, delivered a magnificent card of 66 strokes, six under par, and has placed himself in the thick of the tournament, where the action is. He is just one stroke off the lead, although the leaderboard is much like the entrance to Madrid on a Tuesday at eight in the morning.
The tournament has started with a historic traffic jam. There are seven leaders at -7, 16 players within one stroke, and 25 within two. Crazy. Tied at the top are the Englishmen Will Enefer, Sam Hutsby, Tom Lewis, the Scotsman Marc Warren, the Norwegian Baard Skogen, the Irishman Gary Hurley, and the South African Louis Albertse. Just one stroke behind are another nine players, including Ereño and others like Wilco Nienaber or Hennie Otto. Such is the parity after the first day at the Royal Cape Town Golf Club that being two strokes off the lead doesn’t even get you into the top 10.
Ereño has signed an impeccable round. Very much like Ereño. Although he has been a professional for a short time, his vital signs as a player are perfectly defined: solid as granite, very few mistakes, and a great putter. He has demonstrated it again today. Six birdies without error. He signed four on his first nine holes and two more on the return. Last week he also started very well in Limpopo and got to the top. Really, the only thing missing is finishing the job over four days. Who knows if it will be here in Cape Town. He has deserved it for some time. He is playing with invitations, so anything that adds points and finishes in the top five would open the doors to more tournaments.
A good start also for Santi Tarrio (-3), a player who already knows what it means to do well on this course. He was sixth in 2021. The production of birdies has been very high, with six successes, no less, although he stumbled with a bogey and a double bogey. Precisely, his biggest mistake, that mentioned double bogey, came on his first hole of the day, so his recovery has been splendid.
Albert Boneta (-1) and Borja Virto (-1) also started under par. They are only six strokes off the lead, but the -1 leaves them out of the provisional cut. That’s how tight things are this week in the HotelPlanner Tour. Tomorrow, they need to reach at least -2, and to be sure and suffer as little as possible, ideally, they should reach three under par.
With these calculations, the rest of the Spaniards are starting to feel the pressure: Víctor Pastor and Lucas Vacarisas (PAR), Joel Mosctael (+1), Javier Barcos (+1), and Alfredo García Heredia (+2).
