Familiarity was key for Christiaan Bezuidenhout as he charged into contention as the leading South African at the 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player.
The 31-year-old's eight birdies included four in a row from the eighth, capped by holing from a bunker at the 11th - one of two chip-ins in his round to delight the home support.
Bezuidenhout won the 2020 South African Open at Gary Player CC in Sun City, one of his three wins on the DP World Tour, and said: "Definitely comfortable around this course, I've won here before.
"Like I said at the start of the week, the key here is just to keep it in play off the tee. The greens are so good."
On his round, which featured just a solitary bogey at the second, he said: "It was a solid day. I drove pretty well, except on two, I lost it a little bit right.
"I just kept myself in play off the tee, which is crucial around this golf course. And then I also had two nice hole-outs as well off the green, which always helps.
"I left myself in an awkward position on 11 but holed out from there. And on 18, it wasn't my best iron shot in but yeah, holed out from there as well, so it was good out there.
"It wasn’t my best tee-shot on number two today, lost it a little bit right. But overall, I drove it pretty well, except the drive on two. Overall it's just a solid day tee to green."
Another former winner on this course, Garrick Higgo, followed his opening 68 with a 69 to reach seven under and sit in a share of fifth place.
But Higgo, who triumphed at the 2019 Sun City Challenge on the Sunshine Tour, joked: “I don’t think anybody’s comfortable around here! But obviously that was a nice experience.
“It was in the winter so it played a little bit different, a lot firmer. But yeah, any time you’ve won at a golf course, it does help.
“I have a lot of family that’s here which is different than every other week, on the other side, so I’m really enjoying it.”
He said of his round: "It was a bit of everything. I was in a lot of bunkers, so I was happy that my bunker play was pretty decent.
“I feel like I drove it better. Would have loved to hit a few better iron shots on the par threes but I’d say overall just a solid day.”
