Grace in the hunt at Sun City

Sun City – For Branden Grace, there is nothing better than a course that really provides a stern test for all facets of your game and the Gary Player Country Club certainly fits that bill.

Grace (above) said yesterday after the first round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge that tough courses bring out the best in him and the 29-year-old with five top-10 finishes at the Majors, including the lowest ever round in major history (62 at the Open this year), shot an impressive four-under-par 68 that was good enough for a tie for second place, one behind leader Bernd Wiesberger.

“This is a brutal golf course with different grass to what most of the field are used to playing on. It’s a proper grinding test but I seem to do well on those sort of courses, it’s like a Major. I like it, I grew up playing on Kikuyu grass and you can be aggressive when you can,” Grace said after his round, which started slowly with successive bogeys on the third and fourth holes.

He pulled a shot back on the seventh, but it was on the back nine where he really caught fire, birdying the par-five 10th and then stringing together a run of five birdies from the 12th hole, including a run of birdie-eagle-birdie from the 13th.

If anything, the round showed Grace’s ability to contain his emotions, a crucial part of golf, especially with his putting being a cause for frustration. “Even from the beginning, I didn’t really do anything wrong, but I had a cold putter. I gave myself a lot of good chances and I finally managed to make one on the seventh, which was a real bonus because it is a tough little par-three.”