Haydn Porteous carded a six-under-par 66 on Tuesday at Modderfontein Golf Club to play his way in to the South African Open Championship which gets underway on Thursday.

Porteous, a two-time winner on both the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour, has been battling to rekindle the kind of form that won him the Joburg Open in 2016 and the D+D Real Czech Masters the following year, and he joined 314 players at three courses – Modderfontein, ERPM Golf Club and Irene Country Club – who were vying for 12 places at Blair Atholl in the second-oldest open championship in the world.

Porteous made an eagle, five birdies and a bogey around a course he grew up on to lead the qualifiers into the main draw from there. Also through from Modderfontein were Andrew Williamson and Nicholas Frade who carded five-under-par 67s, and Adam Breen who had 68 and survived a six-man play-off for the final two places.

Italy’s Renato Paratore ran away with things with his nine-under 63 at ERPM. Amateur Janko van der Merwe and professionals Matthew Spacey and Callum Mowat made it through on four-under-par 68.

At Irene, American Sunshine Tour member Brooklin Bailey carded a seven-under-par 65 to win there by a single stroke. Matias Calderon of Chile, Francesco Laporta of Italy, Malcolm Mitchell, Danie van Niekerk and amateur Gareth Clements all signed for six-under-par 66. Van Niekerk and Clements were eliminated in the play-off for the remaining three places.