An exhausted Oliver Bekker shot a flawless opening round 64 to take the lead at the Mopani Redpath Zambia Open held at Nkana Golf Club to continue a brilliant start to the season, in which he has already won twice on the Sunshine Tour.

Bekker again showed his class when he took to Kitwe, two days after he qualified for the 117th U.S. Open, without having had a practice round to get a feel of the course. Four birdies on the front nine were quickly matched by the same number of birdies on the back and ensured that Bekker usurped Ockie Strydom, who was leading.

‘This was unexpected to say the least. I only got back yesterday from the UK; pretty tired and didn’t sleep well,’ he said of his round in Kitwe, “but I played the course two years ago and I remembered some of the holes, but some of the lines I had to double-check, but the form is continuing and I am going to ride the wave until it stops.’

He is closely followed by the duo of Ockie Strydom and Riekus Nortje, who both signed for seven-under-par 65s. With a new putter in the bag, Strydom was all fire as he made nine birdies and two bogeys to position himself among the early leaders.

‘With this course you have to hit it straight,’ he said, ‘I think I hit two drivers; didn’t hit it well, but I have got my trusted two-iron in the bag. I got a new putter in the bag so that helped me quite a bit. I was rolling them in from basically everywhere, so I am happy with today.’

Sharing the second spot, Nortje’s round was quite similar to Strydom’s as he also made a haul of nine birdies and a pair of bogeys. He felt he could have done better though.

‘It was a good day out on the course, but I feel like I left quite a few out there,’ Nortje said, ‘but also, I made a couple of good putts,” he said.

He, too, cautioned against greed and careless shots, saying these will easily be penalised on this narrow course. ‘This is not a long course, but you have to hit it well around this track,” he said after his round, “but, if you get your irons going, you can go very low.’

Jean Hugo took the fourth spot, signing for six-under-par 66, while Merrick Bremner makes the top five with his five-under 67.

Colin Nel and Ulrich van den Berg share sixth on four-under, while Adilson Da Silva, Combrinck Smit and England’s Chris Lloyd make up the top-10 on three-under after round one.

Photo: Sunshine Tour