December 03-06
Gary Player CC, Sun City, South Africa
R19,500,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who won last week's event at Leopard Creek, is one of four home favourites in a six-way tie for the lead of the South African Open after the opening round in Sun City.

Bezuidenhout has had success in his home country this year with two European Tour wins at the Dimension Data Pro-Am in February and last week's Alfred Dunhill Championship.

He continued his good form on Thusday, starting his round on the back nine with back-to-back birdies then making four more before losing some momentum and making a bogey at the par-3 3rd for a 67.

"I got off to a nice start this morning, turned in five under par. I birdied the tenth as well to get to six under par and then just from there the putter all of a sudden went cold. I just couldn't make putts coming in.

"I was hitting it nicely, gave myself quite a few chances so the hitting is there. Hopefully I can keep on rolling it well over the next few days.

"Overall I'm pleased with my start and hopefully I can keep it up over the next few days."

Tied with him are fellow South Africans Ruan Korb, Jacques Kruyswijk and Dean Burmester, Italian Aron Zemmer and Austria's Matthias Schwab.

Burmester took the early lead at 6-under after firing a trio of birdies at the 3rd, 4th and 5th before closing with his second bogey at the 9th and dropping back into a share of the lead.

"If you gave it [a 67] to me before I teed off I would have taken it."

Kruyswijk made seven birdies and two bogeys for his share of the lead.

"It really means a lot. It's been a hard few months for me. After lockdown I suffered a bit of a back injury which put me out for a few months.

"The confidence was very low the last few events. It's just one of those situations where you sort of stick to your process and just push through a little bit and I'm very happy with my round today."

Schwab, Bezuidenhout, Kruyswijk and Burmester started in the morning and made the most of the early scoring conditions. Afternoon starters Korb and Zemmer had stronger winds to contend with.

Schwab made the turn in 33 and drained a 20-foot eagle putt at the first to reach 5-under.

"I came off a nice birdie on my ninth hole of the day and then hit a good drive, hit a good four iron to, I'd say 18 feet and then holed the putt.

"It was a pretty straightforward eagle so that was nice for me."

Korb, who won the Sunshine Tour's Time Square Casino Challenge last month, started on the back nine and made six birdies in seven holes and a single bogey at the par-4 8th.

"It's been a lovely day for me. I played pretty well. Actually I hit only one poor shot there on the 17th and it cost me just one single drop but I managed to just keep calm."

Zemmer also made six birdies and a single bogey at the par-4 14th to join the top of the leaderboard.

"I'm very pleased with my score today. In the afternoon we had quite a lot of wind so I'm pretty happy with how I played."