STEVE Surry saw his first round at the Nelson Mandela Championship washed out as not a single shot was possible on the opening day in Durban today.

Play was postponed in the event - the first of the new European Tour season - in South Africa until Friday because of a flooded Royal Durban course following further rain.

Trowbridge professional Surry carded a superb round of 66 to qualify for the prestigious one million Euro tournament earlier this week.

The Cumberwell Park touring pro was joined in the field by Swindon's two-time Ryder Cup winner David Howell.

Tournament director Mikael Eriksson told Sky Sports: "The fairways are very waterlogged. The course hasn't improved as much as we hoped it would overnight and further rain early this morning put us back another few hours.

"The forecast wasn't bad at all for today and we hoped the course might have dried out a little bit more, but it hasn't actually.

"We tried early this morning to shorten the golf course - made a couple of par fours into par threes, one par five into a par three as well - in an attempt to start, but with the additional rain as we were trying to restart it didn't work.

"The good scenario is that we start at 0630 on Friday morning, play the first round tomorrow, the second on Saturday, have a cut and then go from there. We are still hoping to get 72 holes in.

"The tees and greens are not a problem - they are fine. It's the fairways and rough that are bad.

"I'm hoping the sun is going to come out, but there could be some more rain on the way this afternoon."

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