Robin Williams is the first round leader of the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Picture: Luke Walker/Getty Images
Not Tiger Woods, but Robin Tiger Williams … that’s the name at the very top of the leaderboard after the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship being played at Leopard Creek in Malelane.
Little-known Williams, whose middle name is Tiger, shot an impressive seven-under-par 65 on Thursday to lead by one after the opening round of the co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour-DP World Tour event.
The 22-year-old, whose world ranking is 924, outplayed all the other 155 golfers who teed it up on Thursday after making eight birdies and one bogey.
Tied in second place after the first round is young Jayden Schaper, who was very much in the mix at the SA Open at Blair Atholl last weekend, and Spain’s Manuel Elvira, who both shot 66s to be six-under-par.
Williams told the DP World Tour after his round how it came to be that his middle name is “Tiger”.
“My dad wanted to name me Sachin after the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar … he was a good cricketer who also played golf at the time, and I think my mom said “no”,” explained young Williams.
“And he then went with Tiger (Woods) and it just so happened that I ended up playing golf.
“It’s just a coincidence … I’ve been asked about it a lot during my junior, amateur and now professional career … it’s an honour for me to be named after that man.
“I’m a big fan … he’s opened doors for millions of players.”
A big group of players are tied fourth at five-under-par, just two shots back, including young Casey Jarvis, who’s also been in the mix on the SA swing recently, as well as the rising stars of local golf, amateurs Christian Maas and Christo Lamprecht, the world’s top-tanked amateur, who led the Open at Royal Liverpool last year after the first round.
Four-time winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship, Charl Schwartzel, shot an opening 68 to be four-under-par and is again very much in the mix, while Erik van Rooyen and Christiaan Bezuidenhout also needed 68 blows to get around the course on the banks of the Kruger National Park.
Dean Burmester, who won the Joburg Open and SA Open titles in back-to-back weeks, shot 69, while Louis Oosthuizen recorded a 70 for his first round.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
