\n\tJOHANNESBURG: With their longtime dream of bringing LIV Golf to South Africa having become reality, the four members of home favorites Southern Guards GC felt the emotion of the moment in Thursday\u2019s opening round.<\/p>\n
\n\tTears of joy. Goosebumps. Hair-tingling electricity. A sense of pride. All were present at The Club in Steyn City.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd then they delivered a performance to match, riding the wave of adrenaline and passionate support from the gallery to top the team leaderboard with a collective 18 under for a one-shot lead.<\/p>\n
\n\tNone of the foursome could match the scorecards of the Crushers GC duo of captain Bryson DeChambeau and Charles Howell III, who share the individual lead after shooting 8-under 63s.\u00a0But the all-South African team was happy to end the day on a similar emotional high to the start.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cProbably the pinnacle of my career, honestly,\u201d said Dean Burmester after his 4-under 67. \u201cProbably the greatest day I\u2019ve had on the golf course, the most fun, the most backing I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019ve played all over the world, and I\u2019ve never felt this kind of emotion and this electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOne of the best experiences I\u2019ve ever had on a golf course,\u201d echoed Charl Schwartzel, who shot a 5-under 66 despite a back issue that almost forced him to withdraw. \u201cI\u2019ve played President\u2019s Cups. I\u2019ve teed off in front of presidents in New York and that first tee gave me goosebumps. I almost had tears in my eyes. It was a really proud moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is what we hoped for,\u201d said Branden Grace, who shot a team-leading 7-under 64 to grab a share of third place. \u201cReally a phenomenal feeling, and it\u2019s great to be able to start the week the way that I did today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Louis Oosthuizen, it was the culmination of his four-year effort in leading the charge for a South African tournament. His 2-under 69 was a roller-coaster \u2014 he suffered an early double-bogey, then immediately responded with three consecutive birdies \u2014 but the Southern Guards captain has emphasized the bigger picture this week of having LIV Golf visit the African continent for the first time.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI know what it took to bring this tournament here, and the fans were unbelievable,\u201d he said. \u201cFor a Thursday, to have this many people here, it\u2019s all our dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlthough they played in four different groups on Thursday, the Southern Guards were able to feed off each other as well as the crowd. Collectively, they played their first 12 holes in even par before playing the next 12 in 6 under. A Grace eagle to start his final nine seemed to ignite the rest of the team, which collectively shot 10 under on their final nines while combining to make 187 feet of putts in that stretch.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think everybody just got on the bandwagon and one thing led to another, and look at it now,\u201d Grace said.<\/p>\n
\n\tDeChambeau, playing with Oosthuizen and 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson in the last group to tee off, also enjoyed plenty of encouragement while playing for the first time in South Africa. The Crushers captain continued the momentum from last week\u2019s playoff win in Singapore, birdieing four of his final six holes to join Howell atop the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat an environment,\u201d DeChambeau said. \u201cSouth Africa showed out today, and it\u2019s only Thursday. I\u2019m quite impressed with the environment here and the people and the love that we felt today. It really energizes all of us players and makes us want to give back more. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHowell produced his league-leading sixth bogey-free round of the season, leading the field in Strokes Gained Putting on greens softened by torrential rain the previous day. He knows the appreciation shown to all players on Thursday may grow increasingly partisan toward the local favorites as the week progresses.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI know it\u2019s a big week for them, a special week for them, but it\u2019s also a big week for LIV and LIV Golf on a global scale and what this can look like and what this can be,\u201d Howell said. \u201cI\u2019m quite sure the next three days will be pretty crazy and chaotic out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JOHANNESBURG: With their longtime dream of bringing LIV Golf to South Africa having become reality, the four members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-548850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}