It was a quiet opening round for the South African challengers in the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick on Thursday as Dylan Frittelli led the way with his one-under-par 69 for a share of 49th.

After an early bogey on the second hole, Frittelli pulled things right back with an eagle on the third and a birdie on the fourth. But a double-bogey on the ninth saw him turn in level-par. Two birdies and a bogey on the back nine completed his scoring.

Sepp Straka of Austria was one of the four co-leaders, alongside Colombia’s Nico Echavarria, American Jake Knapp and Frenchman Victor Perez, after the first round and he got to six-under thanks to a brilliant chip-in at the eighth, which was his penultimate hole.

The flamboyant German Marcel Sime surged into contention thanks to a brilliant 65. The 44-year-old rolled in six birdies and one bogey to sit one off the pace on a congested leaderboard. Siem certainly enjoyed Thursday’s opening round. He said: “It was pretty good, game is still there. Holed a few nice putts. I’m very, very happy with that start. I love it, if it’s warm and very windy, it’s not that windy today, but I think this is what it’s all about.”

Calum Hill led the Scottish challenge, sitting one adrift of the leaders alongside German pair Siem and Matti Schmid and Englishman Marco Penge.

Norway’s Viktor Hovland carded his first flawless round at this event to sit with South Korean Tom Kim, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and American duo Wyndham Clark and Keith Mithell in a share for ninth at four-under.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Brandon Stone, Jacques Kruyswijk, Aldrich Potgieter and Thriston Lawrence were all on level-par 70 and in a share of 68th. Kruyswijk got it to three-under after staring on the 10th, but he made only one more birdie and four bogeys.

Erik van Rooyen and Dylan Naidoo battled to three-over-par 73s, while Ockie Strydom’s poor run of form continued with his opening four-over 74. Shaun Norris was a further shot back on five-over 75 in a share of 148th.