JOHANNESBURG, November 24, 2011 (AFP) - Jbe Kruger shared the early field on Thursday with Steven O'Hara after hitting a series of birdies to score seven-under-par 65 in the first round of the South African Open.
The South African fired seven birdies in a bogey-free start that he shared with Scot O'Hara, who hit an eagle at the 8th and a lone bogey at the 4th at the Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
"This is the SA Open, it's the biggest event for you when you grow up. Just to take it one shot at a time is the most important thing," said Kruger.
The 25-year-old secured pars until the 7th, where he made the final birdie of his round and took the lead at seven-under in the morning of the one-million-euro championship.
"If you can hit it pin-high, you should be fine. If you go two yards left or right of the flag and it will break about 25 centimetres, so you have to stay on the right side of the slope," said Kruger about the Jack Nicklaus course.
O'Hara described his first round as good and said he needed a good finish this week.
"I hit a lot of great shots. I had it inside 10 feet pretty much every hole and it felt like I could have made more birdies. It's all about accuracy with your second shot," he said.
South Africans Retief Goosen, Merrick Bremner, David Hewan and Tyrone Mordt shared third place one stroke behind the top of the leaderboard.
"I was nervous coming into the day, but I played nicely. I’m very happy with where I am," said Mordt, who made four consecutive birdies from the fifth to the eighth in the day's longest birdie run.
"I think my iron play was really good. And it has to be around here: to make birdies you have to hit irons to the right parts of the green," he said.
Last year's edition went down to the wire between Ernie Els and Goosen, with Els holding off a four-birdie Goosen come-back on the last five to win by a single stroke at the Durban Country Club.
It was the Johannesburg native's fifth victory in the tournament.
The contest, the second-oldest national championship after the British Open, turns 101 this year.
Notably absent from the November 24-27 tournament are locals and Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, who are at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China.
The par-72 course, called the Masai Mara, opened in 2009 with its signature hole number eight a par-five with an island green.
Leading first-round scores Thursday after the first round of the South African Open at the par-72, Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate on the outskirts of Johannesburg (RSA unless noted):
65 - Steven O'Hara (SCO), Jbe Kruger
66 - Retief Goosen, Merrick Bremner, David Hewan, Tyrone Mordt
67 - Shaun Norris, Jean Hugo, Garth Mulroy, Felipe Aguilar (CHL)
68 - Soren Hansen (DEN); Mark Brown (NZL); David Frost; Trevor Fisher Jnr; Phillip Price (WAL); Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (FRA); Jared Harvey (AMA); Thomas Aiken; George Coetzee; Keith Horne; David Drysdale (SCO); Markus Brier (AUT); Jeppe Huldahl (DEN)
69 - Louis Moolman; Bernd Wiesberger (AUT); George Murray (SCO); Alvaro Velasco (ESP); Branden Grace; Gareth Maybin (NIR); Jaco Van Zyl; Floris de Vries (NED); Thomas Norret (DEN); Jake Roos; Thabang Simon; Ockie Strydom; Lyle Rowe; Oliver Wilson (ENG); Elliot Saltman (SCO); Ernie Els; Andrew Curlewis; Ulrich van den Berg; Lloyd Saltman (SCO)
70 - Lindani Ndwandwe; Richard McEvoy (ENG); Graeme Storm (ENG); Simon Dyson (ENG); Clinton Whitelaw; Hennie Otto; Lee Slattery (ENG); Wade Ormsby (AUS); Peter Whiteford (SCO); Pablo Martin (ESP); John Parry (ENG); Chris Williams; Omar Sandys; Prinavin Nelson; PH McIntyre; Alastair Forsyth (SCO); Mikko Korhonen (FIN); Carlos Del Moral (ESP); Soren Kjeldsen (DEN); Tim Sluiter (NED); Grant Muller