Otto making the right headlines

Hennie Otto has grabbed his fair share of headlines since coming to the fore as a top-class golfer but at Royal St Georges on Thursday it was for all the right reasons.

By leading the British Open after the first round the South African, who turned 27 in June, would have caused a right old media scramble before seeing his name emblazoned across the sports pages of the Friday Press.

Teeing off first at 6.30 a.m. Otto would have completed his round long before the golf correspondents of the major papers had even deigned to make an appearance in the Press marquee; especially because he was on the course five hours ahead of Tiger Woods and more than seven hours ahead of defending champion Ernie Els.

In calm, soft conditions his 68 would not have appeared all that impressive but I can just imagine the scramble it caused when the worthies of the broadsheets realised the man from ERPM near Boksburg was going to lead the British Open.

There would have been plenty an anguished “Who the hell is Hennie Otto!” ringing around the Press room and anxious leafing through tour guides to try to find some information on the South African.

If the gentlemen (and a good few ladies) of the media were lucky some Press officer might have interviewed Otto and scribbled down a few quotes for distribution, but there was every chance that our Hennie finished his round and left the course long before the media realised he would be in the lead.

I can imagine that the South African reporters who are at the Open would have been much in demand to provide the odd titbit about Otto and hopefully they will have forgotten that when he first appeared on the Sunshine Tour it was with the name of an adult magazine emblazoned across the back of his shirt!

Capable of extremely low scores Otto is a good enough player to have won the SA Tour Championship at Leopard Creek this year, but his most celebrated moment was doubtless when, after a particularly harrowing day over the Wild Coast course, he stopped on the bridge across the Umtamvuna and tossed his clubs into the river.

As an amateur Otto, who played at flyhalf for Boksburg’s senior rugby team when he was in standard eight, won the Freddie Tait Cup for being the leading amateur in the SA Open in 1997 and gave an indication for his liking for links golf by being the runner-up in the Scottish amateur strokeplay at Turnberry and taking fourth place in the Links Trophy competition at St Andrews.

Stocky and pugnacious, Otto is in the midst of a purple patch because he blasted his way into the Open with exceptional golf in regional qualifying over the North Foreland course near Royal St George’s; carding a 36-hole tally of 128 after following up his opening 65 with an even better 63.

It was the first time he had qualified for the Open proper and won him a spot in the first group on the first tee, but who would have said he would still be first after the 156 players had done battle with the capricious winds of Sandwich – and 10 strokes ahead of Ernie Els?