Wilco Nienaber played his first competitive round after a long break and the 64 he posted was good enough to share the lead with Alexander Levy in Thursday’s first round of the SDC Open at the Zebula Country Club.

Nienaber and Levy lead by one over England’s Chris Paisley and Tom Shadbolt, Spain’s Angel Ayora, South Africa’s Malcolm Mitchell and Dutchman Lars van Meijel. Defending champion JJ Senekal opened with a round of level par 72.

Nienaber made his seven birdies, eagle and one bogey look fairly routine as he showed no signs of any competitive rust in setting the pace as the co-leader in this Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour co-sanctioned tournament. Frenchman Levy joined him later in the day with a round that included six consecutive birdies.

“I took a long break which was really good. I really tried to put the clubs away and rest. I struggled to do so for longer than two weeks though. I played a few rounds but didn’t really focus on a score, so I’m pleased with this round. It felt pretty easy,” said Nienaber.

Levy was equally delighted with what was also his first competitive round of the year. “I practiced very hard the last few weeks in Dubai and I’m happy with my game today. I missed a few putts on my front nine but I remained patient and that was the key today,” said the five-time DP World Tour winner.

Nienaber certainly looked at ease on Thursday and hinted at a few elements to his game that he focused on in preparing for this week. “My distance off the tee certainly helps on this course. You can get lucky when you hit it offline here. But saying that, I’ve learned to manage that part of my game better. I’m not hitting it full blast the whole time.”

The key to his 64 came on the back nine – his first nine. Amidst his birdies at the 11th, 13th and 14th was a very good par save on the par-four 12th hole. “I hit my tee shot left and was in a thorn bush. I got it out into the bunker and then managed an up-and-down for par, so that kept the momentum going.”

He then took advantage with an eagle on the par-five 15th. “I hit a really good drive and then a wedge to five feet and holed the putt. The par fives here are reachable and scoring on them is key here. Having said that I parred two of them today, but that’s good because it means there’s room for improvement.”

SCORES:

64 - Wilco Nienaber, Alexander Levy

65 - Chris Paisley, Angel Ayora, Malcolm Mitchell, Lars van Meijel, Tom Shadbolt

66 - Benjamin Follett-Smith, Rhys Enoch, Matthew Spacey, Kyle Barker

67 - Deon Germishuys, Louis Albertse, Jbe' Kruger, Jean Hugo

68 - Curtis Knipes, Gary Hurley, Hennie Otto, Martin Vorster, Philipp Katich, Lyle Rowe, Hamish Brown, Pieter Moolman, Rupert Kaminski, Lee Slattery, David Langley

69 - Maxence Giboudot, Ruan Korb, Trevor Fisher Jnr, George Bloor, Niklas Regner, Makhetha Mazibuko, Victor Pastor, Keagan Thomas, Lars Keunen, Ryan Van Velzen, Neil Schietekat, Robin Roussel, Gregorio De Leo, Daniel Young, John Parry, LB Boshoff, Martin Rohwer, Luke Jerling

70 - DK Kim, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Sentanio Minnie, Anton Karlsson, Anthony Michael, Robin Sciot-Siegrist, Wynand Dingle, Hayden Hopewell, Jonathan Broomhead, Hennie O'Kennedy, Jason Roets, Dermot Mcelroy, Adam Breen, Heinrich Bruiners, Lucas Vacarisas, Joshua Berry, Ross Mcgowan, Aron Zemmer, Gerhard Pepler, Christoffer Bring, Nikhil Rama, Yurav Premlall, Willie Olivier, Keith Horne, George Mason, Rourke van der Spuy

71 - Stuart Krog, Ricardo Santos, Martin Couvra, Keelan van Wyk, Christofer Blomstrand, Gary Stal, Bjorn Akesson, Sean Bradley, Danie Van Niekerk, Ronan Mullarney, Pierre Pineau, Quim Vidal, Jamie Rutherford, Dylan Naidoo, Luca Filippi, Alfie Plant, Justin Walters, Sam Hutsby, Dan Erickson, Robson Chinhoi, Jovan Rebula, CJ du Plessis

72 - Christiaan Basson, Rhys West, Ruan Conradie, Stefan Wears-Taylor, MJ Viljoen, Ben Schmidt, Ronan Kleu, JJ Senekal, Oliver Farr, Joel Moscatel, Julien Sale, James Allan, Bryce Easton, Haraldur Magnus, Gregory Bourdy, Rhys Thompson, Herman Loubser

73 - Ashley Chesters, Martin Simonsen, Dylan Mostert, Tomas Gouveia, Mikael Lindberg, Jordan Gumberg, Craig Howie, Jake Redman, Borja Virto, Kiet van der Weele, Thomas Aiken, Callum Mowat, Albert Venter, Jack McDonald, Javier Sainz, Peter Karmis, JC Ritchie, Tristen Strydom, Gary Boyd, Romain Wattel, Andoni Etchenique

74 - Sean Cronje, Estiaan Conradie, Daniel van Tonder, Jacques Blaauw, Jacques P de Villiers, Jastice Mashego, Justin Harding, Robin Williams, Oliver Bekker, Jaco Van Zyl, Keenan Davidse, Toby Tree, Bradley Bawden, Toto Thimba Jnr, Wade Jacobs

75 - Pietro Bovari, Jeremy Freiburghaus, Alejandro Canizares, Michael Stewart, Clement Guichard

76 - Mateusz Gradecki

77 - Combrinck Smit

78 - Clement Berardo, James Kamte, Christiaan Burke

79 - Merrick Bremner