Home favourite George Coetzee made a blistering start as the second event of the Final Series got under way at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player.
Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett were due to go out in the final group of the day as they continued to battle it out for top spot in the Race to Dubai rankings presented by Rolex, but it was South African Coetzee who grabbed the early headlines on day one.
The 30 year old arrived at Gary Player Country Club off the back of a season's-best finish of fifth at the Turkish Airlines Open and picked up where he left off, picking up three shots in four holes to sit atop a congested leaderboard.
Coetzee had spoken in Turkey of how he felt his game was returning to top shape and he showed more evidence of that with an eagle on the second and a birdie on the fourth to sit a shot ahead of eight players.
Another South African, Thomas Aiken, and playing partner Lasse Jensen both reached the turn in two under and they were sat alongside Felipe Aguilar, David Lingmerth, David Lipsky - who eagled the second - Matteo Manassero, Matthew Southgate and Fabrizio Zanotti.
Spanish duo Alejandro Cañizares and Pablo Larrazábal were then at one under alongside Johan Carlsson, Victor Dubuisson and Robert Rock, as the early scoring suggested the thicker rough in play this year was resulting in a tough test.
