Owen in pursuit of leader Otto

England's Greg Owen remained in contention for his first European Tour title on a testing day in the South African Open.

Owen began the day just one shot off the lead held by South African Hennie Otto after rounds of 67 and 69 at East London.

The 28-year-old from Mansfield feels he is due a breakthrough victory after improving gradually every year and is keen to test his game to the limit at the sharp end of a tournament.

Tobias Dier, David Howell, Retief Goosen and Thomas Bjorn all bogeyed the first hole, a treacherous par four normally played as a par five by the club members.

However Owen, who discovered a left leg which was 7mm shorter than the right was the cause of years of back pain only last week, took advantage of a stroke of good fortune to make a rare opening birdie and move swiftly into a share of the lead.

His approach to the first from the left-hand rough ran through to the back of the green, but then rolled back down the slope to within six feet of the flag to set up a birdie to take him to nine under.

Six straight pars then kept him on that mark, but the 6ft 4in right-hander found himself overtaken at the top of the leaderboard by Otto and fellow South African Roger Wessels.

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