Swede start to South African Open for Erlandsson

Erlandsson needed 46 strokes to complete the first nine holes in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

Swede Martin Erlandsson snatched an eagle and six birdies to fire an eight-under 64 and take a one-stroke lead Thursday after the first round of the South African Open near Cape Town.

Seeking his first European tour triumph, the 35-year native of Malmo leads Spaniard Pablo Martin and South African Dawie van der Walt at the 6,800-metre Pearl Valley Golf Estate east of Cape Town.

The highlight for Erlandsson as he seeks to end a nine-year dominance of the second oldest national golf championship after the British Open came at the fifth hole of a course designed by American legend Jack Nicklaus.

His three-wood second shot landed just three feet from the pin and he sank the putt in a round that banished memories of a disastrous start to his 2010 European tour last weekend.

Erlandsson needed 46 strokes to complete the first nine holes in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in the eastern South African province of Mpumalanga.

The South African Open is the second of four events co-sanctioned by the European and South African Sunshine tours with the others scheduled for January in East London and Johannesburg.

Martin, shock victor at the Dunhill Championship to become the first winner of European tournaments as an amateur and a professional, took time to get going at the Western Cape links surrounded by vineyards and mountains.

However, after birdies on three of five inward-nine holes, 23-year-old Martin finished with an eagle as he tries to emulate South African Richard Sterne, who raised the Dunhill and South African Open trophies last year.

Van der Walt claimed two eagles, a three on the fifth followed by a pitch into the hole for a two at the first hole of his second nine in perfect conditions.

Sterne, one of the South African 'young lions' hunting a title not won by a foreigner since Zimbabwean Mark McNulty triumphed in 2001, had to settle for a one-under 71 as he chases the title that means most to him.