Thursday 12 January 2017 16:47, UK
Sir Nick Faldo produced one of the rounds of the opening day at the BMW SA Open as he fired a commendable two-under 70 to lie just four shots off the lead.
Faldo has not played a regular European Tour event since the 2014 Hong Kong Open, but he looked far from rusty as a bogey at the first proved to be the only blemish on his card, which also featured three birdies.
The 59-year-old, who has lost 20lbs in weight over the last three months, was particularly impressive with his irons on a tough layout and ended the day in a share of 26th place alongside the likes of Darren Clarke, who birdied his final three holes at Glendower.
Faldo recovered from his mistake at the first with five solid pars followed by a superb long-iron approach to the 486-yard seventh which he converted for his first birdie of the round.
The six-time major champion grazed the hole with further birdie chances and did well to salvage pars on the odd occasion he missed the target, and he got under the card with another good up-and-down for a four at the long 15th.
Faldo then knocked a vintage approach to eight feet at the next and rolled in another confident putt, but he narrowly failed to break 70 for the first time in nine years as he settled for another cast-iron par at the last.
"It's hard work out there. I'm playing from way back to these guys, so I'm hitting four-irons in when these guys are hitting nine-irons," said Faldo afterwards.
"I've been on a new diet for the last two or three months and I've been working on my swing, so it's nice to hit some good shots.
"I was a little off balance with some of my drives and mis-hit a few as well which went nowhere, but I hit the ball well with my irons. I've only got one swing, but it worked pretty well today."
