Royal Cape had a course record 60 in the Cape Town Open, two lower than the old mark of 62. It’s the lowest score posted in a Sunshine Tour event in the Western Cape. What made the 60, by Sebastian Gros (France) even more remarkable was that he had 80 in the first round, a swing of 20 shots, unheard of in that scoring range. Gros followed it with rounds of 75-75. So the 60 was a fluke. Gros played the back nine first, in 32, and came back in 28. He had nine birdies in his last 10 holes. Otherwise, Royal Cape was its usual challenging self, averaging 71.98. Wind direction determines the difficulty of holes, and it was interesting to see a 492-metre par 4 (No 3) played easier downwind at 4.24 than the into-the-wind 435-metre par 5 (No 11) at 4.51. Strange though to see No 11 used as a 5 for this tournament. Unlike some courses, the par 4s were tougher to play than the par 3s, which are a tricky quartet at Royal Cape. No 14 with its severe dogleg was again the most demanding hole, averaging 4.26 (22 double bogeys), ahead of No 3, the par-3 13th (3.22) and No 17 (4.2).
