Christiaan Bezuidenhout opened with a bogey on Thursday in the first round of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, but he made five birdies without dropping another shot on his way to a four-under-par 66.

Bezuidenhout picked up birdies on the fifth and the ninth on his way out, and then made three more on the homewards journey, on the 13^th, 16^th and 18^th. His four-under put him in a share of 14^th, five shots behind the leader John Huh of the United States. Huh’s nine-under put him two clear of Korean Sungjae Im, with Americans Peter Malnati and Brandon Wu in a share of third on six-under.

Dawie van der Walt opened with a level-par 70 for a share of 79^th, while Garrick Higgo had a three-over-par 73 to find himself languishing in a share of 132^nd, and unlikely to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs which begin next week.

Bezuidenhout, on the other hand, is projected to rise inside the top 50 in his current position, and will certainly feature in at least the FedEx St Jude Championship next week. That will feature the top 125 on the FedEx Cup rankings, and, with 70 players advancing to the following week’s BMW Championship, a good performance next week will see him in that too.