Robin ‘Tiger’ Williams shows his claws to lead SA charge at Turkish Airlines Open

ANTALYA: Young Robin Williams is leading the South African charge in the DP World Tour’s Turkish Airlines Open here at the Regnum Carya in Antalya, Türkiye.

The 23-year-old enjoyed a strong start with three birdies within his first four holes, and maintained his form throughout the day with three further birdies to finish on six-under-par to tie with co-leaders Italian Martin Couvra and German Tiger Christensen after Thursday’s first round.

Meanwhile, a refreshed Wilco Nienaber believes a new-found philosophical approach to the game will help him succeed in the Turkish Airlines Open.

Nienaber, who won the NTT DATA Pro-Am at Fancourt while his grandfather was on his death bed back in February, shot a splendid opening-round 68 to finish three-under par on Thursday.

“I think, with the events at home, I was pretty tired,” Nienaber said. “A lot of personal stuff has happened since NTT Data.

“I lost my grandfather one day after. So, quite a lot has happened since then.

“Chats have been had, and things have happened on the other side of it. He wasn’t well for quite a while. 

“But knowing it’s going to happen and when it happens, it doesn’t make it any easier. As a close family, it hurt us. That’s how life is unfortunately.”

Having experienced this trauma, the big-hitting 25-year-old now takes everything in his stride, despite bogeying the 10th and 16th holes.

“Number 10, water left, trees right, I had a committed tee shot, wind didn’t really push it to the fairway,” Nienaber said.

“Bounced and rolled into the hazard, hit a good approach shot and missed the par putt.

“(On 17) Bad tee shot, just a bad tee shot, left of the tee, but I made a bad decision on the second shot. Shouldn’t have done that, but almost made par as well.

“I’m not getting frustrated if you miss too many, because you have a lot of chances. I’m happy with it.

“Maybe a little bit of execution on maybe two shots, but ’s it. You hit many golf shots, so to hit two average ones are okay.

“All in all, very solid, very happy about it.”

He was equally measured with his birdies on No 1, 5, 14, 15 and 17.

“I did some adjustments with my driver on Monday with Dom Prompting and it’s really good. So, it’s nice to hit it long and straight,” Nienaber said.

“Fourteen was just a great iron shot to five foot, and 15 driver forerun to putt, sounds straightforward, but I was pretty steady today.”

Unfortunately, fellow South African and SA Open champion Dylan Naidoo was left a little bit more frustrated after an erratic opening round

Starting on the back nine, and playing with two-times DP World Tour winner Jordan Smith and Scotland’s Calum Hill, Naidoo shot out of the blocks with birdies on the 12th, 15th, first, fourth and seventh holes to sit amongst the leaders at four-under-par with three holes remaining.

But after poor shots off the tee that saw Naidoo fall drift into the woods on No 8, 9 and 10 saw Naidoo scrambling for a bogey, double bogey and bogey on his last three holes to go along with a previous double bogey on No 6 to finish with a one-over-par 72.

The approach shot on hole No 9 was particularly galling for Naidoo as he saw his ball rolling all the way down the green.

* Zaahier Adams is attending the Turkish Airlines Open at the Regnum Carya Golf Club in Antalya, courtesy of Turkish Airlines