He only made one birdie on Tuesday, but it was on Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate’s par-three Whistling Thorn Course, and it was enough to see JC Ritchie into a share of the lead of the Bushveld Tour’s three-day event there.

Ritchie bogeyed the first hole, but regained that shot dropped to par with his solitary birdie on the fifth, and he moved to two-over-par for the tournament. With him at a shot clear of the man in third was amateur Yurav Premlall, who won the Freddie Tait Cup at the South African Open Championship last December.

It was a measure of how difficult it is to score on 18 par-threes in a row that Ritchie’s score of level-par 54 was the best of the day, and Premlall’s the next-best at one-over. The amateur made one birdie and two bogeys, and his score was matched by Rickie Hendler, who was in a share of fourth on four-over.

Coert Groenewald was the man in third place on three-over after he carded a two-over 56 on the par-three course.

The tournament opened on the 18-hole par-72 Signature Course before moving to Whistling Thorn, and it will conclude with the third round back on the Signature Course.