American Thomas Strandemo carded an eight-under-par 64 on Monday to take the first-round lead of the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour’s Race to Q-School #5 at Modderfontein Golf Club.

Strandemo made an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey to move two shots clear of second-placed Ryan Estment of South Africa, who made seven birdies and a bogey on his way to a six-under-par 66 in second. Gerhard Pepler and Martin Vorster were in a share of second on five-under, but with Vorster receiving a late invitation to the Sunshine Tour’s Johnsson Workwear Open in Durban later this week, he will not be playing on in the tournament.

Strandemo got off to a good start with a birdie on the opening hole, a par-five, and then made two more gains on the third and the fifth. He dropped a shot on the sixth, but got back on track immediately after that with birdies on seven and eight as he reached the turn in four-under-par 32. After the turn, he made four threes in a row from the 11^th. He made par-birdie-eagle-par on that stretch, and then picked up a final shot with a birdie on the 17^th.

Behind him, Estment kept his card clean with six birdies until he dropped the only shot of his round with a bogey on 16. In third, Pepler made three bogeys on an altogether more colourful scorecard, picking up an eagle on eight, and five birdies.

Vorster’s presence in the field sparked a great deal of interest, as he had his planned introduction into the paid ranks disrupted by the intervention of the scheduling issues caused by the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in December. He had the fall-back plan of playing in the Sunshine Tour’s Qualifying School in any event, so his first tournament outing in the new year was always going to draw attention. He made seven birdies, including on all four of the par-fives, and dropped shots on the par-four sixth and the par-four 15^th.

Last week’s winner Herman Loubser carded a level-par 72 in the opening round.