Local hope Christiaan Basson held a three-shot lead after Thursday’s first round in the European Tour’s season opener at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.
Four days after Rory McIlroy signed off this year’s campaign in style in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, it was Basson who led the way at the Leopard Creek Country Club.
He produced a seamless eight-under-par 64 to open up a gap to Briton Matt Ford and Mark Williams of Zimbabwe before play was suspended due to a storm warning with 39 players yet to finish their rounds.
The leading trio in the clubhouse took advantage of benign early morning conditions with temperatures soaring in the afternoon on the edge of the Kruger National Park.
The man to buck that trend was Charl Schwartzel, who was playing the last as the horn sounded to end play at 5:26pm with him also three behind.
Basson’s previous best European Tour finish in 30 events was a tie for 10th at The South African Open in last year’s season.
The 33-year-old made birdies on the second, fifth, sixth and eighth to turn in 31 and four more followed on the 11th, 13th, 14th and 16th to move him to the summit.
“Hopefully I can keep playing the way I’m playing, golf is a funny game, you never know what is going to happen,” he said.
Ford, who secured his playing privileges with a tie for seventh at the Hong Kong Open, produced an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys in his 67.
A group of seven players were at four-under led by Niclas Fasth, who was playing in his 500th European Tour event.
The 43-year-old Swede was presented with an ice bucket to mark the occasion and, after going out in the opening group of the day from the first, he carded an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys.
Vaughn Groenewald, Benjamin Hebert, Joost Luiten, Jean-Paul Strydom, Ryan Tipping and Borja Virto Astudillo were all then in the clubhouse alongside Fasth.
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