Near-perfect scoring conditions at Irene Country Club made for a feast of birdies on day one of the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour #14, with nearly a third of the field breaking par on Monday.

Local boy Matt Bright made seven to surge to the summit with a bogey-free 65.

The Road to Sunshine Tour leader leads by one shot from Theunie Bezuidenhout, who offset three bogeys and a double at 16 with 11 birdies for a 66.

Kyle Barker, Luke Brown, Ruan Conradie, Roberto Lupini, Eric Nel and Korea’s DK Kim lurk just two off the pace, with another half-a-dozen players just a further shot adrift.

Bright is hunting his third victory on the golf development circuit this season, having run up a double in the #5 at Killarney and #6 at Centurion Country Club in July.

He only made two birdies on his outward nine, but rattled off five on the home stretch.

“I haven’t been hitting it well in the past couple of weeks, so I took a couple days off last week to get my head back in the right space. I hit a lot of golf balls to get back in the groove and it was really solid today. I hit 10 fairways, which was very pleasing as this has been a weak point in my game. I hit it close on a lot of greens, but I missed quite a few birdie chances, especially on the front nine,” said the 24-year-old, the self-made owner of a shop fitting enterprise called SteelStuff.

Bezuidenhout fired a string of six birdies from the sixth and grabbed another gain at 13 to move to seven-under. A bogey at 14 and a double at 16 put the brakes on his challenge, but the North West golfer finished birdie-birdie to keep the leader in his sights.

“I’m really pleased with this round, especially with the SA Open qualifiers just around the corner,” he said.

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