Louis de Jager produced a big finish to fire an opening 64 and set the clubhouse target on day one of the Tshwane Open.
Perfect conditions greeted the players at Pretoria Country Club and it was European Tour winners Thomas Aiken and Julian Suri who looked to have set the target as they posted opening rounds of 65.
De Jager then birdied three of his last four holes to get his nose in front at seven under, with two more South Africans in Shaun Norris and Combrinck Smit two shots back.
De Jager's best European Tour result came at the inaugural Tshwane Open where he finished third in 2013, and he also finished fourth at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in December.
The 30 year old birdied the 11th, 16th, 17th and 18th but five pars in a row meant he looked to be settling into the chasing pack.
A 15-foot putt on the sixth then moved him to five under before he hit a smart tee-shot into the eighth and got on the ninth green in two, getting down in the same amount of strokes to lead the way.
South African Aiken opened with a bogey but then made five birdies in a row from the 11th and when he added another on the 18th, he was out in front on his own.
Playing partner Suri had birdied the 12th, 13th and 15th and he made another on the second before holing a slippery ten-foot right-to-lefter on the third to join the lead.
Aiken - a three-time winner on the European Tour - went a long way left off the 14th tee to drop a shot but bounced back with a 25-foot birdie on the par three next and Norris soon joined the lead with him.
He had made birdies on the 11th, 12th, 17th and 18th but a double-bogey on the first had threatened to derail his progress.
The 35 year old bounced back with gains on the second and third and an approach to three feet on the sixth had him in a share.
American Suri went over the back of the seventh to concede a bogey and while he bounced back with a 20-footer on the next, that was only enough for a share of second as Norris put his tee-shot to six feet.
The leader then hit a ragged tee-shot on the ninth to drop a shot and he was leapfrogged by Aiken and Suri, who both took advantage of the par five.
Smit turned in 33 with birdies on the fifth and seventh and while he bogeyed the tenth he hit back with a birdie on the next and an eagle on the 12th. A second dropped shot of the day came on the 16th but he had a birdie-birdie finish.
Brazilian Adilson da Silva, Spaniard Scott Fernandez, Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia, German Maximilian Kieffer, Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist, South Africans JJ Senekal and Justin Walters, and Dane Jeff Winther were four under.
