Christiaan Bezuidenhout's bid to win back-to-back events got off to an excellent start as he claimed a share of the lead after day one of the South African Open.
Fresh from his second European Tour title in the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Sunday, Bezuidenhout was part of a six-way tie at the top of the leaderboard following an opening 67 at Gary Player Country Club.
Fellow South Africans Dean Burmester, Jacques Kruyswijk and Ruan Korb were also five under par, along with Austria’s Matthias Schwab and Italy’s Aron Zemmer, with Dylan Frittelli and Matthieu Pavon a shot off the pace.
Meanwhile Irish pair Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin are both on level par after rounds of 72. Caldwell hit two birdies on the back nine, but he mixed that with a pair of bogeys.
Sharvin opened with eight pars before going bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie, and then parring the last six holes of his round.
"I got off to a nice start this morning, turned in five under par and birdied 10 as well to get to six under and from there all of a sudden the putter went cold," Bezuidenhout said.
"I just couldn't make putts coming in. I gave myself quite a few chances, so hopefully I can keep on rolling it well the next few days.
"Obviously it’s nice to have a good start and hopefully I can get the momentum going and put myself in a position over the weekend and on Sunday as well."
Playing alongside local favourite Bezuidenhout, Schwab carded an eagle and three birdies in a bogey-free round as he seeks a first European Tour title.
"I think it was a pretty good round," the 25-year-old said. "Chris got off to a great start and I managed to kind of hop on his back and keep up with him, so we had a nice first 10 or 11 holes going.
"Then it got a bit windy and we just kept the score together. I had a few good looks coming in but wasn’t able to make any of those, but overall it was a good day.
"It was nice to be bogey-free. I’ve had some issues with avoiding errors in the last few months, so it’s nice for me to see that I can still play pretty nice golf."
