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McIlroy moving early at SA Open

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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - JANUARY 12: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland acknowledges the crowd during day one of The BMW South African Open Championship at Glendower Golf Club on January 12, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
  • Post published:January 12, 2017

Rory McIlroy carded 67 at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday to share second place early into the first round of the SA Open.

The world number two started on the back nine and posted four birdies in a row from the 14th to the 17th for an initial move up the leaderboard.

He added a further gain at the second hole, then gave back shots two shots before plugging the leak with a birdie at the sixth hole. He added a final red number at the eighth to sign for five under par, one stroke off the early pace.

Trevor Fisher Jnr set the pace with a round of 66 that included six birdies on the back nine. The 36 year old comes grew up several kilometres away from the parklands course and has played it often.

Local knowledge helped Fisher to navigate the course and he limited the mistakes to one bogey, which came at the 11th hole.

McIlroy was joined in second place by Thomas Aiken, who started on the 10th but only caught fire on the second loop, which he completed in 31 strokes.