Ji-Yai Shin (AFP)
South Korea's 19-year-old Ji-Yai Shin lived up to her billing as one of golf's next superstars as she and teammate Eun-Hee Ji nailed 11 birdies between them to take the lead in the 20-nation women's World Cup.
After the first round of bestball - two team members each playing their own golf balls and the best score counting on each hole - Shin and Ji led with an impressive 11-under-par 61 on the long, tough course with its brutal rough, while the French pair of Virginie Lagoutee-Clement and Gwladys Nocera were just one off the pace on 62.
Shin as been touted as one of the up-and-coming stars after winning a record 10 tournaments in 19 starts in her home country last year.
And Lagoutee-Clement may be four months pregnant, but she still managed a fabulous six-under-par 66 with her own golf ball over the Gary Player Country Club course at this casino resort Friday.
The Koreans had 11 birdies and France 10, and - remarkably - neither team dropped a shot.
The Koreans birdied holes 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17 and 18 in a wonderful display that included nine-hole loops of 30 and 31 without a single bogey.
"We would have been happy with seven or eight under but we both played so well that we did even better than that," said Shin.
"We made the most of each other's strong points, and are looking forward to tomorrow's foursomes where we will have to be more defensive because it's a hard format and you need to be careful. If we can shoot three under in the foursomes we'll be very happy."
Canada's Lorie Kane and Alena Sharp - Sharp made six of their eight birdies - also played well to sign for a 64, with the United States (Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst), Philippines (Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin) and pre-tournament favourites Sweden (Sophie Gustafson and Maria Hjorth) all sharing third place on 65.
Over two hours of play were lost because of a mid-afternoon thunderstorm at this beautiful, bushveld venue which meant the last players in - South Africa and Korea - finished their rounds just before nightfall.
The French players were thrilled to be in contention in this fourth edition of the World Cup which is held every year in South Africa and so far has been won by Japan (2005), Sweden (2006) and Paraguay (2007).
"The course is very tough and the rough really nasty," said Nocera who won twice on the Ladies European Tour last year.
"If you miss the fairway you're in trouble but fortunately Virginie and I combined well today. When I hit an off-line drive into the rough she was on the fairway, and when she occasionally strayed I managed to stay out of trouble.
"We had 10 birdies between us today, with Virginie making the first three before I even woke up. Then I did wake up and birdied number seven and number eight. On the back nine Virginie birdied 10, 12 and 14. Then the siren sounded and we had the delay.
"I had some coffee, and came back strong making birdies at 16 and 18. I had an eagle putt at 18 but I was a little bit chicken and had to settle for birdie. It was a fun day for us."
The nine-hole loops have been switched for this 1.4-million-dollar tournament which means Sun City's dramatic par-5 ninth with its island green is for this week the 18th.
© 2008 AFP/sid
