DP World Tour : Joburg Open Leaderboard
China's Wenyi Ding fired seven birdies in a flawless 63 to share the lead alongside Englishman Jordan Smith after the first round of the 2025 Joburg Open.
Ding has impressed in his rookie season after earning a DP World Tour card as the inaugural winner of the Global Amateur Pathway ranking last year, announcing himself on the big stage with a joint-fifth finish at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open just before Christmas.
And he gave the South African crowds a glimpse of what he is capable of on Thursday morning as he stormed to the top of the leaderboard on -7.
Fellow early starter Smith - a two-time DP World Tour winner - then matched Ding's total courtesy of a tap-in birdie on the eighth, his penultimate hole, as he also signed for a bogey-free 63.
Home favourites Jayden Schaper and Malcolm Mitchell were part of a five-way tie for third one shot behind the joint-leaders at -6 along with German Nicolai von Dellingshausen and Englishmen Marco Penge and Callum Tarren.
Ding said: "I played pretty well today. Some short irons gave me a lot of birdie chances and I made a lot of putts." When asked if having a South African caddie with plenty of local knowledge helped him, Ding added: "He was great. It's his birthday today and I promised I'd give him a trophy this week!"
Smith, who has not teed it up since withdrawing from the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters last month, said: "It was just nice to finally get a round under our belts after an unfortunate last couple of weeks.
"But yeah, just really nice. Like I say we haven't really played much golf the last couple of weeks due to a few injuries but I'm really happy.
"It'd be great to go obviously the four days and hopefully get the win."
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus ( edit)
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