Ernie Els overcame rough conditions to enjoy an outstanding opening round at his hometown course. Fellow South African Retief Goosen was not nearly as fortunate.
Els carded a 5-under-par 67 on Thursday and is one of four players tied for the lead after the first round of the South African Open.
A native of Johannesburg and a four-time winner of this event, Els shot an eagle and two birdies on the front nine before recording two birdies and a bogey along the back nine.
Fighting fierce winds throughout the afternoon, Els shot a par-5 on the 17th hole and a par-4 on No. 18 to close out his stellar round. He enters Friday's second round tied with South African Trevor Immelman, Englishman Andrew Raitt and Carl Suneson of Spain for a one-stroke lead.
"The first round is always important, and I am in a good position," Els said.
Unlike Els, Goosen suffered a nightmare finish after seemingly mastering the Humewood course. Goosen owned a three-shot lead over the rest of the field when disaster struck at the 17th, where he shot a mind-boggling 11 to fall three strokes off the pace.
Goosen pulled his first ball left into bushes, then dug himself a deeper hole by hooking his provisional ball to the right as well. He eventually found his second ball and was granted relief two club-lengths clear of the unplayable spot.
But after the first drop, Goosen's ball rolled backwards within the two clubs and was ruled playable. Goosen did not realize that, picked the ball up and dropped again.
The mistake resulted in a two-shot penalty, and tour official Andy McFee informed Goosen that he had taken an 11 on the hole.
"He took an unplayable ball drop, so he had two club-lengths from where the ball lay," McFee said. "He has to drop the ball within those two club-lengths, which he did. It then rolled just outside the two clubs-lengths, and he was under the impression he had to re-drop the ball.
"But you only re-drop the ball if it rolls more than two club-lengths from where it strikes the ground. The ball didn't do that and it didn't roll nearer the hole, so the ball was in play. Effectively when it is in play, he has no authority to touch it or pick it up. If he only picked it up, it's a one-stroke penalty. But because he didn't replace it, it was a two-shot penalty."
McFee did not have time to view the tape and picked up the transgression via text messages - asking other officials to view it, while he hastily tried to stop Goosen from signing his card after birdying the 18th.
"I got to him in the recording area before he signed his card, and the nine became an 11," McFee said. "As soon as I started talking to him to ask what happened - because it happened so quickly I didn't have an opportunity to see the tape - there was a kind of a realization, and he nodded and went 'Yes, I got it.'"
Britain's Lee Westwood carded a 4-under 68 and is tied with Sweden's Patrik Sjoland and South Africa's Des Terblanche for second place, one stroke off the pace.
Goosen, who finished with a 3-under 69, is one of seven players tied for third place.
67 Carl Suneson (Spa), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Ernie Els (Rsa), Andrew Raitt
68 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Lee Westwood, Desmond Terblanche (Rsa)
69 Alan McLean, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Gareth Davies, James Kingston (Rsa), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), James Kamte (Rsa)
70 Hennie Otto (Rsa), Ross Fisher, Bradford Vaughan (Rsa), Robert Rock, James Heath, Nico Van Rensburg (Rsa), Edward Rush, Edoardo Molinari (Ita)
71 Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Divan Van Den Heever (Rsa), Benn Barham, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Nic Henning (Rsa), Lee Slattery, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Juan Parron (Spa), Titch Moore (Rsa), Brandon Pieters (Rsa), Steve Basson (Rsa), Garry Houston, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Lee S James, Richard Finch, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Steve Van Vuuren (Rsa)
72 Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa), Andrew Tampion (Aus), Tony Johnstone (Zim), Andre Cruse (Rsa), Mathias Gronberg (Swe), Johan Axgren (Swe), David Frost (Rsa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Sam Walker, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa), Chris Williams (Rsa), Dion Fourie (Rsa), Mark Murless (Rsa), Rafael Bello (Spa)
73 Chris Swanepoel (Rsa), Branden Grace (Rsa), Nigel Edwards, Warren Abery (Rsa), Warren Bennett, Sam Little, Gregory Havret (Fra), Vaughn Groenewald (Rsa), Desvonde Botes (Rsa), Ian Hutchings (Rsa), Scott Drummond, Gary Lockerbie, Grant Muller (Rsa), Christiaan Basson (Rsa), Derek Crawford, Werner Geyer (Rsa), Keith Horne (Rsa), Justin Walters (Rsa), Richard Sterne (Rsa)
74 David Carter, Merrick Bremner (Rsa), Wayne De Haas (Rsa), Matthew Richardson, Oliver Wilson , Eugene Marugi (Rsa), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Birgir Hafthorsson (Is), Alexandre Rocha (Bra), Mark Pilkington, Billy Valentyn (Rsa), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Tom Whitehouse
75 Doug McGuigan, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Julien Foret (Por), Lindani Ndwandwe (Rsa), Sean Farrell (Zim), Charl Coetzee (Rsa), Gavan Levenson (Rsa), Clinton Whitelaw (Rsa), Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Anton Haig (Rsa), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Tongoona Charamba (Zim), Angel Cabrera (Arg), Chuck Johnson (Rsa), Michiel Bothma (Rsa), Phillip Archer, Martin Maritz (Rsa)
76 John Bele (Rsa), Alex Haindl (Rsa), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Jean Hugo (Rsa), Richard McEvoy, Rossouw Loubser (Rsa), Marc Cayeux (Zim), Kevin Stone (Rsa), David Drysdale, Sven Struver (Ger), Thabang Simon (Rsa), Ross Wellington (Rsa), Michael Lamb (Zim), Michael Kirk (USA)
77 Sammy Daniels (Rsa), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Garth Mulroy (Rsa), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Bobby Lincoln (Rsa), Omar Sandys (Rsa), Grant Veenstra (Rsa), Oliver Fisher, Ryan Tipping (Rsa), Manuel Quiros (Spa)
78 Henk Alberts (Rsa), Brett Liddle (Rsa), Trevor Dodds (Na), Sion Bebb, Bafana Hlophe (Rsa), Francois Calmels (Fra), Dawie Van der Walt (Rsa)
79 Christiaan Van Der Merwe (Rsa), Alexander Noren (Swe), Edrich Jansen (Rsa), Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa), Wayne Westner (Rsa), Alan Michell (Rsa)
80 Lyle Rowe (Rsa), Luis Claverie (Spa), Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa), Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
81 Dean Lambert (Rsa), Robert Wragg, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)
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