Haydn Porteous continued his recent encouraging form to take a share of the clubhouse lead midway through day one of the Tshwane Open.
The South African began the season with six missed cuts - four by just a single shot - but back-to-back top 30 finishes in his last two events have seen him recover some of the form that saw him crowned Joburg Open champion last term.
The 22 year old made a host of swing changes towards the end of 2016 and they now look to be bearing some fruit, with a 65 at Pretoria Country Club on Thursday handing him a six under total and a share of the lead alongside Frenchman Grégory Havret.
Australian Ben Eccles, Finn Mikko Korhonen, Scot Duncan Stewart, England's Toby Tree and South African Justin Walters were then all a single shot off the lead.
Porteous started on the back nine and turned in 32 with birdies on the 11th, 15th, 17th and 18th. A 20-footer on the fourth moved him to within one of the lead and when he left himself a flick into the par four sixth, he was in top spot.
Havret had made a blistering start early with birdies on the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth, the latter courtesy of a lengthy putt from off the green.
Bogeys on the 11th and 13th dropped him out of the lead but he put his tee-shot on the par three 14th to tap-in range before holing a 15-footer on the penultimate hole.
Challenge Tour graduate Stewart started on the back nine and turned in 32 with birdies on the 12th, 14th, 17th and 18th. He held the lead when he added to them on the third and fourth but got in trouble on the ninth and failed to get up and down for his only bogey of the day.
Walters started his round with a bogey on the tenth but responded in impressive fashion, birdieing the 12th and then making four in a row from the 14th. He added just one more on the sixth to sign for a 66.
Tree also recovered from an early bogey on the second, making birdies on the fifth, sixth, ninth, 11th, 13th and 14th.
Korhonen turned in 31 but bogeys on the tenth and 12th stalled his momentum before he bounced back with gains on the 14th, 15th and last.
Eccles finished even more strongly as he added birdies on the 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th to his previous gain on the ninth.
Matthew Southgate put his approach to the ninth to ten feet for a closing eagle that left him at four under alongside fellow Englishman James Morrison and Spaniard Jorge Campillo.
Home favourites Dean Burmester and George Coetzee, English pair Daniel Brooks and Chris Hanson, Scottish duo Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren, Spaniard Pep Angles and Frenchman Romain Langasque were then all at three under.
