Defending champion, Johannes Veerman, meanwhile, had a day to forget.
Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan shot a scintillating nine-under-par 63 to lead the 2025 Nedbank Golf Challenge by three shots at Sun City on Thursday.
The 27-year-old, who is ranked 59 in the world, made 10 birdies and dropped just one shot, at the difficult par-four 17th hole, during his opening round.
Three players, namely Jesper Svensson from Sweden, Marcus Armitage from England and Adrien Saddier from France, shot first round 66s to be three off the pace.
Reitan’s 63 is his lowest ever opening round and his third lowest round on the DP World Tour. The 63 is also the lowest round at the tournament since Louis Oosthuizen also shot a 63 in 2019.
SA golfers
The best placed South Africans after the opening round, which was played in calm, cool weather, are Shaun Norris and Garrick Higgo, who with a bunch of other players, are on four-under-par, five shots back.
Norris started poorly with a double bogey seven at the par-five second hole and made another bogey at the par-three seventh, but he also had birdies at seven other holes.
Higgo had a clean card with four birdies at the second, 10th, 12th and 17th holes.
Aldrich Potgieter, the young hot shot on the PGA Tour who was in contention going into the final round last year, shot an opening 69 to be three-under-par and in tied 11th place. Thriston Lawrence also recorded a 69.
Defending champion, Johannes Veerman from the USA, had a day to forget.
He had two double bogeys, seven bogeys, three birdies and six pars in a round of 80, to be 65th out of 66 golfers at Sun City this week. His three birdies came in a row at the eighth, ninth and 10th holes.
Only Daniel Gavins from England, with an 81, shot worse than Veerman.
