Just five days after he captured the third tournament in the 18-event Race to Q-School series at State Mines, McIntyre was in sublime form in the first round at Kyalami Country Club.
The 20-year-old withstood the pressure of former Sunshine Tour campaigner Justin Turner at the tight, tree-lined layout and fired seven birdies for a magnificent six-under-par 66.
He finished one stroke clear of Turner and two ahead of two-time winner Damian Naicker, who joined the chase with an eagle at the 18th for a four under 68.
Pretoria’s Phillip Kruse – another amateur who visited the winner’s circle on the country’s premier development golf tour earlier this season – wiped out an early double bogey with a trio of birdies on the back nine to tie for fourth at three under 69 with Ekurhuleni amateur Angus Ellis-Cole.
Another nine players managed to break par in the opening round, but none of them did it with as much style as McIntyre.
The BDGA player got off to a fast start with a birdie at the opening hole and dipped deeper into red numbers with further gains at four, six and nine. He was in a buoyant mood after he negated a lone bogey at 11 with a birdie at 13 and a brace of birdies at 17 and 18 to take the lead.
“I wasn’t hitting the ball all that well off the tee, but I holed a lot putts and my short game kept me out of any serious trouble,” McIntyre said.
“This isn’t the kind of course where you can afford to hit it offline. Anything off the fairway is in the trees and you are severely punished, because there is hardly ever a straight shot to the green.”
McIntyre has been working hard on his overall game and he feels the rewards are starting to show in the Race to Q-School series.
“I’ve been working on all the parts of my game to put a score together and I’ve been very happy with my long game all year, but I haven’t benefit from it the way I would have liked,” he said.
“Things started to look up at the Race to Q-School #2 at Waterkloof where I finished second and last week I had the best ball striking rounds of the year in the first and second rounds at State Mines.
“I struggled again off the tee in the final round, but the putter and the short game came to the party. It was a real scramble to win the play-off, but hopefully I can build on that this week. Hopefully I find a bit more accuracy off the tee as the week progresses, but overall I’m satisfied to be contention.
“That’s the name of the game in the build-up to Qualifying School. I feel that I am at that point where, if I get a good feel on the greens and I hole some putts, I can really compete. I brought some good momentum into the week and hopefully I can keep it positive over the next few days.”
First Round Scores
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs indicated as AMA
66 - David McIntyre AMA
67 - Justin Turner
68 - Damian Naicker
69 - Angus Ellis-Cole AMA, Phillip Kruse AMA
70 - Matt Wollmann (ZIM), Sheldon Steyn (ZIM), Bryce McCabe, Matthew Spacey, Matt Saulez AMA
71 - Combrinck Smit AMA, Kyle McClatchie AMA, Ruan Korb AMA, Jacques de Villiers
72 - Kyle Barker, David Ashley (ENG), Ruhan van Dijk AMA, Duane Keun, Clinton Grobler, Johary Raveloarison (MDG)
73 - Jaco Linde AMA, Francois Coetzee, Keegan Steyn AMA
74 - Sean Coomer AMA, Matthew Vogel, Albert Venter AMA, Dylan Docherty, Keaton Slatter AMA, Eric Nel AMA, Stephan De Beer, Paul De Beer
75 - Wayne du Toit, David Nortje AMA, Dean O'Riley, Maritz Wessels, CJ Levey, Owen Grobler, Paul Boshoff AMA
76 - Matthew Hands AMA, Andrew Carlsson AMA, Michael Faasen AMA, Daniel Joubert AMA, Tristan Nel AMA, Philip Geerts AMA (ITA), Conway Kunneke, Ivanna Samu AMA
77 - Dongkwan Kim (KOR), Michael Kok AMA, Ruan Enslin AMA, Richard Tsai AMA
78 - Werner Van Wyk, Calvin Caldeira, Byron Garvie, Morne Du Plessis AMA, Marais Visagie, Stephan Erasmus AMA, Bryce Myburgh, Bertine Strauss, Francesca Cuturi, Bonita Bredenhann (NAM), Leon Visser AMA
79 - Terence Archibald AMA, Werner Lourens, Phillip Montgomery, David Schultz AMA
80 - Louis Albertse AMA, Chris Haefele, Steven le Roux AMA, Dean Berkowitz AMA
81 - Shaun Bernstein AMA, Bradley Van Biljon AMA, Jihwan Yeom AMA
82 - Cameron Gunning, Mohammed Ismail AMA, Michael Schutz, Jason Ackerman AMA
83 - WM Coetzee AMA, Sam Metcalfe AMA, Adam Baker AMA, Armand Azar AMA
85 - Gary Jutzen AMA
86 - Shaun Mackeown AMA, Dwayne Coetzee, Gustav Erasmus
87 - Rancan Meyer AMA
88 - Gareth Anderson AMA, Nash De Klerk AMA, Danel Van Den Berg AMA
90 - Duan Nagel AMA
100 - Haydon Heres AMA
DSQ - Thabang Kutumane AMA
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
