Owen chasing leader Otto

England's Greg Owen has his sights on a maiden European Tour victory after the first round of the South African Open.

Owen carded a five under par 67 at East London to lie just two shots off the early pace set by South African Hennie Otto who fired a 65, with Spain's Ignacio Garrido (66) in second.

Wales' Bradley Dredge joined Owen and Switzerland's Paolo Quirici on five under shortly before play was abandoned for the day as darkness fell after two delays due to the threat of lightning in the afternoon.

Owen had six birdies and just one dropped shot as he took advantage of unexpectedly benign conditions on the normally windswept course.

The 28-year-old from Mansfield has yet to win after four years on Tour but is in confident mood after his joint 10th place at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

During that tournament in Johannesburg, he discovered an unusual cure for a back problem that has plagued him for eight years.

A physiotherapist at the event noticed his left leg appeared shorter than his right and X-rays confirmed there was a 7mm difference.

It was temporarily rectified by taping a few pages of the Yellow Pages together inside his shoe.

A foam insert is in place for this week, and Owen will use specially constructed in-soles when he can get some new wider shoes to take them.

"I hope it really does make a difference," he said. "It explains a lot about some of my swing faults and I felt the benefit straight away.

"It feels like I'm hitting it further because I'm getting more turn on the backswing and hopefully this is the start of a pain-free career.

"I used to wake up with pain every day but thought it was just hereditary because my dad has a bad back and it was something I was going to have to put up with."

Leader Otto had also recovered from a painful situation, although his was of the self-inflicted variety.

After shooting a second round 80 in the South African Masters a fortnight ago, the 24-year-old snapped most of his clubs in the car park and then dumped them in a nearby river.

Armed with a new set and a new attitude he carded six birdies, one eagle and one bogey in his 65 for a one stroke advantage over former Ryder Cup player Garrido.

Pre-tournament favourite Darren Clarke also demonstrated his more relaxed approach despite running up a triple bogey eight in his opening 77, five over par.

Clarke was two under after seven holes but dropped back to level before coming unstuck on the par five third hole.

Just left of the green in two, his pitch to the green came up short in the bunker and from a bad lie his fourth shot got to the top of the bank before rolling back down past him.

From there it took three more attempts to find the putting surface, his seventh shot finishing just inches from the hole.

"It was just one of those things," said Clarke. "I didn't play that badly but I just got punished for a couple of wayward shots."

Justin Rose, second at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, was also two under par early on before dropping two late shots and having to settle for a level par 72.

Of the players forced to come back and complete their rounds on Friday morning, Yorkshire's Simon Dyson was four under par with just one hole left while Scot Stephen Gallacher was three under with four to play.

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