/ 31 March 2000

BASSON SHARES BOTSWANA OPEN LEAD

IN a remarkable upset of the form book unheralded Steve Basson shot a five-under par total of 66 to share a one shot lead with Vodacom Tour veteran Andre Cruse in the first round of the FNB Botswana Open at the Gaborone Sun on Thursday. The 21-year-old professional, in only his second season on tour, started playing the game just four and a half years ago – with a cross-handed grip like Papwa Sewgolum – but he outshone all but 33-year-old Cruse of the ‘big names’ on an overcast day that finished in a brooding thunderstorm. Basson and Cruse led a group of six players on 67 which included Kenyan Jacob Okelo and 25-year-old KwaZulu Natal professional Lindani Ndwandwe, the former caddie who turned his career around by winning the Natal Open in 1997. Five further players, including multiple winner Steve van Vuuren and Zimbabwe’s Nasho Kamungeremu, finished the day on 68 – but in very different styles. While van Vuuren dropped just one shot all day, the big Zimbabwean played John Daleyesque golf with six birdies, three bogeys, a double bogey and an eagle.