This comes after he had to win the tournament qualifier in order to participate.

The 33-year-old Spangenberg, who represents the Kalahari Golf and Country Club, fired seven birdies during his round to occupy third on the leaderboard after holding onto second for most of the day.

But, a double bogey on the par four 10th early in his round prevented him from sharing the lead with Justin Harding.

Spangenberg says he is very happy with the way things went during the opening round.

“I’ve been hitting the ball well and the game seems solid so I was confident coming into this week and didn’t doubt myself both in the qualifier and in today’s first round.

"Okay, I did drop those two shots at 10 and after initially making a bit of a mess of the 11th I eventually chipped in for par to keep the momentum going."

Spangenberg carded three birdies during the last four holes and says that his confidence grew during the round.

The Northern Cape professional, Spangenberg, gets his second round underway at 11:40 this morning and will be teeing up on the 10th alongside Max Orrin of England and Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya.

Morgan Piek/OFM News