Sargent leads field at IGT Race to Q-School in Centurion
Competition is fierce in Centurion this week in the first event of the 2019 IGT Challenge Tour Race to Q-School series.
Midrand amateur Gareth Sargent made the perfect start to the first IGT Challenge Tour Race to Q-School event in 2019 to lead his more experienced peers in Monday’s opening round.
Sargent clocked in with a blemish-free seven-under-par 65 at Centurion Country Club just before brutal storm hit that forced play to be called off for the day, leaving 15 players to complete the opening round very early in the morning on Tuesday.
The former Trinity House High School learner graduated from Radford University in the United States with a degree in psychology last June. He began competing on the premier golf development circuit and the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour a month later.
Sargent fired two eagles in his outward loop and he racked up a trio of birdies on his back nine to lead by one shot from Pretoria’s Albert Venter and Sunshine Tour campaigner Wynand Dingle.
Another local star and Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour Championship winner Luke Brown is a further shot adrift.
“It’s not every day you don’t have any bogeys, but if the putts had dropped, it could have been closer to 62 or 61,” said Sargent after his round.
Venter also handed in a blemish-free card that sported an eagle at 15 and four birdies.
“The front nine was really quiet, and I only made the one birdie at the second, but I wasn’t hitting it close enough. I had a lot of two-putts, but the distance control improved over the last nine holes. I made a great up-and-down for birdie at 12, knocked in a three-footer for birdie at 13 and holed my trap-shot at 15 for eagle. At 18, I made another good up-and-down for birdie. It was great to get the rust off and to put a decent score together this early in the season,” said the Silver Lakes professional.
A total of 38 players in the 123-strong playing field managed to break par before play was called including Gary Player School of 2018 member Allister de Kock and Centurion amateur Jaco van der Merwe, who joined the bus of 11 players on three-under.
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