Burmester and a number of other professionals support a campaign called Birdies4Rhinos whereby they donate money for every birdie they make in the season to rhino conservation. And it was his experience with the dehorning earlier this week that inspired him to produce one of his best back nines ever at Leopard Creek on Thursday.

"What a back nine. Some of the best golf I’ve played in a while. A back nine to remember, that’s for sure," he said as he came home with six birdies to take the lead.

"Earlier this week we went on a rhino dehorning project in the neighbouring Kruger National Park and it was quite an emotional experience. The thought of that came to me after the turn, and I just wanted to make as many birdies as I could and keep supporting that cause," he said.

Burmester leads by one over Lukas Nemecz who did his scoring in the calmer morning conditions, and started his round with three straight birdies. "That makes life a lot easier," he said.

Former champion Branden Grace is one of five golfers just two shots off the lead.

Burmester is certainly relishing being back in South Africa after a year of travel on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. And he’s particularly enjoying being back in the bush this week.

"We had a lovely game drive with the family this morning and saw lion and leopard on the way out. That put me in a great mood. We rushed back, I had a quick change and was delighted to hear that we could play in shorts because of the heat, had a bite to eat and then got myself ready and that mood carried into the day. It was probably one of the most fun rounds of golf I’ve had in a while. I hope I can keep enjoying myself. We know this golf course can bite you but America has paid dividends. I’ve played a lot on Bermuda grass this year and that has helped me a lot this week."

Grace was very happy with his start to a tournament he won in 2014 by a commanding seven shots.

"It’s always nice to come back to South Africa and play golf courses like this, which is one of the best. It’s nice to see how the changes have now settled in here. There is no rough this week so that’s different but the greens will firm up as the week goes on, that’s for sure. This course will show its teeth over the next few days so let’s not get ahead of ourselves."

Scores:

65 - Dean Burmester

66 - Lukas Nemecz

67 - Branden Grace, Jaco Ahlers, David Ravetto, Deon Germishuys, Darren Fichardt

68 - Ockie Strydom, Laurie Canter, Alexander Knappe, Scott Jamieson, Tobias Eden, Kristian Krogh Johannessen, Louis Albertse, Tom McKibbin, Wilco Nienaber

69 - Jayden Schaper, Dale Whitnell, Todd Clements, Eddie Pepperell, Oliver Bekker, Joost Luiten, Jorge Campillo, Santiago Tarrio, MJ Daffue, Erik van Rooyen, Thriston Lawrence, Bryce Easton, Ashun Wu, Alejandro Canizares

70 - JJ Senekal, Wynand Dingle, Nathan Kimsey, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ernie Els, Dylan Mostert, Jovan Rebula, Jens Fahrbring, Niklas Norgaard Moller, Jaco Prinsloo, Neil Schietekat, Luke Jerling, Dylan Frittelli, James Hart du Preez, Adrian Otaegui, Louis Oosthuizen, Aaron Cockerill, Scott Vincent, Jean Hugo, Keagan Thomas

71 - Gudmundur Kristjansson, Jbe' Kruger, Darius van Driel, Christiaan Maas, Antoine Rozner, Ryo Hisatsune, Ross Fisher, Richard Sterne, Daniel Brown, Joshua Lee, Angel Hidalgo, Shaun Norris, Marcel Siem, Matthew Southgate, Wil Besseling, Adam Breen

72 - Gunner Wiebe, Anthony Michael, Hennie du Plessis, Mateusz Gradecki, Justin Walters, Combrinck Smit, Lyle Rowe, Nick Bachem, Grant Forrest, Kyle De Beer, Rourke van der Spuy, Clement Sordet, Daniel van Tonder, Jeong Weon Ko, CJ du Plessis, JC Ritchie, Jens Dantorp, Matthew Baldwin, Martin Simonsen

73 - Rupert Kaminski, Herman Loubser, George Coetzee, Jacques Blaauw, Edoardo Molinari, Aldrich Potgieter, Philip Eriksson, Gary Hurley, Robin Sciot-Siegrist, Matthew Spacey, Nikhil Rama, Sam Hutsby, Joachim B. Hansen, Tristen Strydom, James Morrison, Jacquin Hess, Makhetha Mazibuko

74 - Keenan Davidse, Dan Bradbury, Stephen Ferreira, Chase Hanna, Estiaan Conradie, Jake Redman, Toto Thimba Jnr, Charl Schwartzel, Sean Crocker, Pedro Figueiredo, Sami Valimaki, Alejandro Del Rey

75 - Jeremy Freiburghaus, Dylan Naidoo, Martin Rohwer, John Murphy, Yurav Premlall, Michael Palmer, MJ Viljoen, Christoffer Bring, John Axelsen, Louis de Jager, Divan van den Heever

76 - Gerard du Plooy, Keith Horne, Zander Lombard, Matthieu Pavon, Pieter Moolman, Jean-Paul Strydom, Gary Stal, Mikael Lindberg

77 - Brandon Stone, Simon Forsstrom, Joel Stalter

78 - Thabang Simon, Marc Warren, Merrick Bremner, Albert Venter

79 - Anton Karlsson, Casey Jarvis, Marcus Armitage, Jaco Van Zyl, Ruan Korb, Brooklin Bailey, Ruan Conradie

80 - Thomas Aiken

81 - Daan Huizing

82 - Freddy Schott, Luke Brown

83 - Henning du Plooy

84 - Jastice Mashego

85 - Alex Haindl

88 - Harvey Young

RTD - Heinrich Bruiners