Shaun Norris made a double-bogey on the second at Gary Player Country Club on Thursday, but he recovered to post a four-under-par 68 in the first round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge to be the leading South African in the 72-man field.

He recovered immediately from the double-drop with a pair of birdies on the third and fourth, and he turned in level-par after a birdie on six and a bogey on seven. But he was flawless coming home, with birdies on 10, 14, 15 and 17 as he finished the first day in a share of fifth.

He was soon joined by Garrick Higgo, who was bogey-free for his 68. He picked up shots on the second, the 10th, the 12th and the 17th. The South African pair was in a share of fifth with Tom McKibbin of Northern Ireland, France’s Julien Guerrier, Belgian Thomas Detry and Haotong Li of China.

Higgo said, “My putter kept me in it. It’s still a long way to go, but it’s a great start.”

They were all five strokes off the lead of nine-under-par 63 posted by Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan. Reitan had five birdies on each of the nines, and dropped a single shot on the 17th. Marcus Armitage and Jesper Svensson had set the early target at six-under, and were later joined there by Adrien Saddier, but Reitan was out on his own after a stunning round.

Aldrich Potgieter opened with a three-under-par 69 to be in a share of 11th, together with, amongst others, Thriston Lawrence. Lawrence trumped three successive bogeys on the front nine with a run of four successive birdies from the 14th to the 17th to get himself into a decent position.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jayden Schaper were on two-under in a share of 20th, while Yurav Premlall and Christo Lamprecht were on level-par in a share of 31st. Dylan Naidoo was on two-over, Ockie Strydom and Jacques Kruyswijk were on three-over, while Dylan Frittelli battled to a five-over 77.