Padraig Harrington has opened with a one-under-par round of 71 at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, the penultimate event of the European Tour season.Â
Harrington shares that mark with Race to Dubai leader Bernd Wiesberger with the Austrian looking to maintain his advantage at the summit of the standings ahead of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next week.
Home favourite Louis Oosthuizen heads the field by three shots on nine-under-par and the former Open champion has revealed that he was suffering going into today's first round:
"Yesterday I spent a bit of time in the hospital and crawling around my hotel room with kidney stones, at 3am this morning, on my knees next to the toilet, which is not a great spot," Oosthuizen told the European Tour.
"I didn't think I was going to tee off early this morning. I thought it was going to be a horrible week for me. Somehow it got better a lot faster than what I expected... it sort of eased in like at 6 or 7am.
"I went up to the range, hit a few shots and didn't really bother me, it was more the walking fast that got it, so I just slowed everything down.
"I hit it nicely. I swung it really good. There was no big hits, I always went for the smoother club. Today was just one of those rounds where I think everything just fell into place."
