Ryan Fox raced home in 29 on the back nine on Thursday at the Gary Player Country Club on his way to a superb eight-under-par 64 in the opening round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

The New Zealander underlined his status as one of the best golfers in the world right now in a compelling display of ball-striking. The world number 26 player made an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey on his way to a one-stroke lead over a former world number one in Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald. Italian Guido Migliozzi was third on five-under, and Australian Min Woo Lee, Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay and England’s Richard Bland were in a share of fourth on four-under.

Fox made birdie on the par-five third to get his scoring going, but he dropped his only shot of the day on the next hole. He only made on more birdie on the front nine, on the signature ninth hole at Gary Player Country Club. But that was the end of ordinary golf from Fox, as he birdied the 10^th and 11^th, and he picked up another shot on the 13^th. For his eagle on 14, he gave a sense of how well he was hitting the ball as he had a seven-iron in for his approach. Birdies on 17 and 18 – no easy birdie holes by any stretch – rounded out his scoring.

He drove the ball an incredible 345.5 yards on average, the longest on the day, and fully 32 metres longer than the average for the field. He was accurate into the greens too, hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation, and he had 27 putts.

Behind him, Donald and Migliozzi were both bogey-free, something only Donald’s Ryder Cup vice-captain, Edoardo Molinari was able to manage further down the leaderboard with his three birdies.