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Keenan Davidse of South Africa overcome illness to shoot a superb eight-under-par 63 and seize the first round lead at the Joburg Open on Thursday.
Davidse can also qualify for The Open as the Joburg Open is part of the Qualifying Series
The 28-year-old fell ill before the event and was hospitalised for four days. He showed no signs of sickness when he fired nine birdies against one bogey at the Randpark Golf Club, par-71 Bushwillow course.
He held a one-shot lead over South Africa’s Jared Harvey, Erik van Rooyen, Ockie Strydom, England’s Matthew Baldwin, James Morrison and Sebastian Heisele of Germany, who all played at Bushwillow.
Asian Tour member Scott Barr of Australia was a further shot back in tied eighth place at the event which is the first tri-sanctioned tournament by the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and European Tour in South Africa.
India's Shubhankar Sharma was tied at 38th in the Joburg Open
Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand, Shubhankar Sharma of India, Masahiro Kawamura of Japan and Jinho Choi of Korea, who played at the par-72 Firestone, were the best placed Asians in 38th place on matching 69s.
Gavin Green of Malaysia, the Order of Merit leader, returned with a 70 to lie in tied 60th place in the 240-man field.
Searching for a first career first win, Davidse turned in 32 before firing five birdies on his homeward nine to hold a slight edge over the chasing pack at the R16.5 million (approximately US$1.2 million) event.
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