Favourite Louis Oosthuizen looking to feast on Bushwillow birdies

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 10am Thursday

South African Open favourite, Louis Oosthuizen, has a good chance of cementing his market leadership in round one at the Randpark Club – the former Open champion is teeing up on the easier Bushwillow Course for his first 18 holes.

Branden Grace and Matt Wallace are also starting their campaign on the Bushwillow, but Dylan Frittelli and Charl Schwartzel are tackling the tougher Firethorn Course first, so it will not be until the weekend that the leaderboard takes proper shape.

First-round threeball punters should consider a wager on Schwartzel for his 9.55am (UK and Ireland time) meeting with Bernd Wiesberger and Haydn Porteous.

Schwartzel has been speaking in bullish fashion about the state of his game in practice over the last few weeks and he backed up his words by firing a 62 in the South African Open Pro-Am on Tuesday. The 2011 Masters champion is a class act in a weak field and will expect to contend, as he usually does when competing on the European Tour in his homeland.

Schwartzel, whose tee-to-green quality will be shown to best effect on the more difficult Firethorn track, should prove too solid for his playing partners. Wiesberger has only just returned from a long injury layoff, while Porteous has performed poorly over the last two months.

Recommendation
C Schwartzel
1pt 5-4 Betfred

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