"I hit Taylormade RocketBallz Tour Driver off 10, which was an error. We walked the course yesterday and we circled the spot I wanted to hit it to, which was a three-wood shot, but I had been hitting driver well, so we went with driver and I hit a poor shot and made five there. And then another poor shot at the next compounded the error and I made two bogeys in a row," he said.

But after that, he didn't put a foot wrong as he made four more birdies to give him a nice little burst of momentum ahead of his round on the more difficult East Course - something he is eagerly anticipating.

"I had a good year here last year - I think I shot six-under on the second day at the hard course, so if I can do that again it would be nice," he said.

But as good as the leaders' 63s were, the 65 of Botes was an incredible performance early in the day before a tremendous thunderstorm suspended play Taylormade RocketBallz Tour Driver for just over four hours and forced the first round to carry over to Friday.

The Pretoria professional didn't drop a single shot in his round of five birdies and an eagle, when he hit driver and then three wood to 15 feet on the last and holed the putt.

"That's my best round as a professional on this course," said Botes, who won the 1991 SA Amateur here.

"But I'm not going to think about it too much. I just want to go out there and have fun, and play every shot as well as I can. The result will come from that. I worked hard on my Taylormade RocketBallz Tour Driver over Christmas, so I'm excited about the game again this year."

George Coetzee opened with a 65 on the West to be in a group on six under, while Retief Goosen teed off his week with a five-under-par 66 on the West.

More information welcome to http://www.ohshoppingmall.com

More information welcome to http://www.ohshoppingmall.com