Tristen Strydom made an eagle, six birdies and a bogey on Thursday to lead 10 qualifiers into the Kit Kat Group ProAm which will be played at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club from tomorrow.

He birdied the first to get his round off to the best possible start on a course widely regarded as a stern test, and then a golden run of three holes from seven to nine where he made birdie-eagle-birdie saw him well on his way. Although he dropped a shot on 11, he made three consecutive birdies to close off his round at seven-under.

Four players – Lyle Rowe, Pieter Moolman, Jared Harvey and Heinrich Bruiners – shared second two shots back on five-under; Chris Swanepoel was sixth on four-under, and Hennie O’Kennedy, Luke Brown, Malcolm Mitchell and Desne van den Bergh emerged from an eight-man play-off to take the last four available spots from Anton Haig, Louis Albertse, Coert Groenewald and Adriel Poonan.

There were 75 players vying for a place in the Sunshine Tour’s opening tournament of 2021, in which there will be 72 men in the main draw which gets underway at 6.40am tomorrow.