Bryce Easton gave himself plenty of chances when he carded a 6-under 66 on Wednesday to join in a three-way tie for the first round the lead at the Sunshine Tour's Vodacom Origins of Golf Simola.
Branden Grace - in 15th place after an opening 70
Bryce Easton gave himself plenty of chances when he carded a 6-under 66 on Wednesday to join in a three-way tie for the first round the lead at the Sunshine Tour's Vodacom Origins of Golf Simola.
He shares the top of the leaderboard with Albert Pistorius and qualifier David Ryan.
The trio all shot 66s and will take a one-stroke lead over Vaughn Groenewald into the second round of this 54-hole event at the Simola Golf and Country Estate in Knysna that ends on Friday.
Branded Grace, already a three time winner on the European Tour and back in South Africa to play in this event, opened with a 2-under 70 and is in 15th place, four shots off the pace.
"Quite a lot of my putts seemed to just sit on the edge and have a look but didn't go in," said Easton, who added: "The greens are rolling nicely, but some subtle breaks make them tricky to read. I'm obviously very chuffed with six-under."
He didn't start out all that promisingly with a bogey on the 11th after teeing off at the 10th, but he rectified things immediately with a birdie on 12, and then two more on 15 and 17.
"I had a nice little chip-in for three on 18, which helped," he said of the eagle on the 468-metre par-five which enabled him to turn in a four-under 32.
He held things together with two more birdies on his inward nine, and came close a few more times; like when he saw a birdie putt lip out on the ninth as he attempted to break a sequence of four consecutive pars ahead of this closing hole.
Pistorius closed his error-free round with consecutive birdies on the 17th and 18th as he took a late share of the lead.
He will be looking to get his year going after two 11th-place finishes so far in the Telkom PGA Championship and the Investec Royal Swazi Open last week. He also had a 12th place in the Platinum Classic.
Ryan's accuracy was the key to his score. He hit 17 greens in regulation, but 29 putts, including a three-putt at the fifth for bogey, kept him from making a lower score.
The Top 20 scores(RSA unless specified):
-6 David Ryan, Bryce Easton, Albert Pistorius
-5 Vaughn Groenewald
-4 Ruan de Smidt, Neil Schietekat, Titch Moore
-3 Andrew Georgiou, Keenan Davidse, Merrick Bremner, Peter Karmis, Ross Wellington, Jake Redman, Justin Harding
-2 Ryan Tipping, Branden Grace, Jacques Blaauw, Louis de Jager, Riekus Nortje, Christiaan Basson, James Kamte, Anthony Michael
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