Rookie tames the Leopard

South African golf tour rookie Anthony Michael took a first-round lead in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek near Malelane yesterday with a six-under-par 66.

Michael, who once had ambitions of playing baseball in the US, leads by one shot from fellow-countrymen Andrew Georgiou and Dawie van der Walt, who are joined by Robert Rock of England and Sebastian Buhl on 67.

"I played baseball for South Africa on a trip to Japan when I was 10," he said. "I was going to go to the US to play baseball, but the sport kind of died in South Africa, so I decided golf was the way to go," he said.

Michael received a sponsor's invitation into the event, which is being played at the 6631m Leopard Creek Country Club layout.

Even though this was only his fourth time playing South Africa's premier golf course, he was able to tame it with his distance off the tee, great approaches from the rough, and by holing some long putts.

"I think I hit only three fairways the whole day, but from the rough to the greens was good and on the greens was amazing," he said. "I had a good feel out there."

He picked up a birdie on the first - the first of four in his opening nine. "On eight, I sank a 50- 60-footer for birdie, and on nine I sank a 25-footer, so my putter was working really well today," he said.

Another birdie on 10 seemed to indicate he was going to stretch his lead, but a bogey four on the 176m par three 12th set him back.

He picked things up again immediately with consecutive birdies on 13 and 14 and came home with pars all the way.