Even after the morning rains had softened the greens at Pretoria Country Club, Branden Grace was able to putt confidently to take a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the R2.65-million Vodacom Championship.

He carded an eight-under-par 64 with an eagle, seven birdies and a single bogey to lead by one from the early leaders Hennie Otto and Thomas Aiken, while Jbe’ Kruger played in the afternoon and also finished on seven-under 65.

“I didn’t actually make any mistakes,” said Grace. “That bogey was maybe the wrong club from the fairway. I just hit it too hard and was just over the green, and I didn’t manage to get it up and down.”

At times during the morning, it rained hard enough to suggest the course might have become waterlogged and play would have to be suspended, but it wasn’t and the greens held up well.

“We all thought the greens were going to get bumpy but we were all very surprised,” said Grace. “The ball rolled very nicely and the speed of the greens stayed very consistent. If you hit good putts on good lines and good speed, they were going in.”

But the softer greens certainly made it possible for all the players to go for the pins. “After the rain this morning the game plan was just to hit everything straight at it,” said Grace.

Otto, too, was pleased to be able to fire away at the flags: “The golf course is wet, so you can attack the flags today,” he said.

“It all comes down to putting again. I think I had 26 or 27 putts and that makes a big difference,” he added.

Aiken was in that ballpark with his putting too. “I had 27 putts, and it’s the first time I’ve broken 30 in a while so it’s a step in the right direction and it shows on the scorecard,” he said.

Grace was better than that. “I haven’t counted my putts yet, but I’m sure I’ll find that it was fewer than 25,” he said.

Otto started quietly on the 10th, but pulled his drive right on 13. “That’s the one place you don’t want to be,” he said.

He took the resultant bogey and responded with three birdies and an eagle from the 15th to the 18th. He made four more birdies on his way in for his 65.

Aiken’s round was bogey-free, and he was pleased with that after some weeks of inconsistency. “This is my ninth week in a row, so a little bit of fatigue doesn’t do your mind wonders. It’s still early days, but nice to get out the blocks well,” he said.

Kruger has had a golden run during the Sunshine Tour’s summer, but has yet to pull off that big win.

“I can just keep doing what I am doing,” he said. “I’m trying hard, but it just hasn’t happened over the last two weeks. Last week, I battled with my concentration over the last 18, but I was hitting some good putts today – 27 of them, and that’s the first time in two months I’ve broken 30.”

Last week’s winner of the Telkom PGA Championship Michiel Bothma was two off the pace on six-under, together with Doug McGuigan, Mark Murless, Darren Blair and Divan van den Heever.

George Coetzee opened with a four-under-par 68, former champions James Kingston and Richard Sterne opened with rounds of 69 and 70 respectively, and Louis Oosthuizen struggled to a two-over-par 74.