Shubhankar, Gandas start with troubled rounds in strong winds in South Africa 

NEW DELHI – INDIA – Manu Gandas of India pictured during round three of The DGC Open presented by Mastercard at the Delhi Golf Club on Saturday March 26, 2022. The US$ 500.000 Asian Tour event is staged from March 24-27, 2022. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

ST FRANCIS BAY (Eastern Cape): Shubhankar Sharma and Manu Gandas suffered in strong winds and shot disappointing rounds in the first round of the SDC Championship. Sharma carded 8-over 80, while Gandas carded 3-over 75.

Sharma was  tied 142^nd and Gandas was tied 88^th. Both will need to shoot low rounds to get into the final two rounds.

Gandas, who got his way into the DP World Tour, by winning six times and topping the PGTI Indian Tour’s Order of Merit, birdied second, 12^th and 18^th holes but also dropped four bogeys and a double bogey on Par-5 16^th.

Sharma had birdies on second and 18^th but dropped a lot of shot including two doubles and one treble bogey.

The scores were rather high because of strong winds.

Frenchman David Ravetto and Norway’s Kristian Krogh Johannessen shared the lead with rounds of 67 each.  They were one shot clear of Scotland’s Connor Syme in the event co-sanctioned by Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour.

Norwegian Johannessen carded a fine bogey-free round having started from the tenth tee.

There was a big bunch at 3-under and it included Julien Brun, Sean Cronje, Nick Bachem, Martin Simonsen and Joost Luiten. Luiten had a stunning albatross at the par-five 13th but he also had a triple-bogey seven at the eighth.