Pyman finds range to make up for lost time

Iain Pyman gave himself a belated wedding present in the first round of the South African Airways Open here. The Yorkshireman hit a four-under-par 68 to lie two shots off the lead held by South Africa's Jean Hugo.

Two other South Africans, the defending champion Tim Clark and James Kingston, shared second place after rounds of 67. Pyman joined the Scots Andrew Coltart and David Drysdale, the Dutchman Rolf Muntz and Ireland's Peter Lawrie in fourth place.

Pyman was in the first group out at 6.30am local time and, after picking up six birdies in his first 12 holes, would have joined Hugo at the top of the leaderboard but for running up a double bogey seven on the par-five seventh, his 16th.

"The seven was a shame but I can't really complain for the first round of the year," said Pyman, who missed the first two official counting events for this season's money list in November and December last year to get married.

England's Justin Rose had to settle for a level-par 72 while his playing partner Paul Casey fared even worse with a double bogey, a triple bogey and dropped shots at the last five holes to go round in 78. The former Open champion Paul Lawrie recovered from a double bogey seven on his fourth hole to make a 72.

The biggest horror story belonged to England's Gary Emerson, who was level par for nine holes after starting at the 10th, only to record an eight-over-par 12 on the first with visits to the water hazard and the out of bounds zone.

SOUTH AFRICAN OPEN (Cape Town) (GB or Irl unless stated): 66 J Hugo (SA); 67 T Clark (SA), J Kingston (SA); 68 I Pyman, P Lawrie, A Coltart, D Drysdale, R Muntz (SA); 69 I Garbutt, B Vaughan (SA), D Howell, P Nyman (Swe), T van der Walt (SA); 70 I Keenan, S Dunlap (US), T Immelman (SA), G Muller (SA), P Dooley, S Drummond; 71 B Lincoln (SA), J-F Remesy (Fr), A Hansen (Den), S Hurd, A Kruger (SA), P Golding, G Murphy, S Dodd, B Dredge, B Davis, M Lamb (Zim), D Terblanche (SA), S Daniels (SA), L Atkinson, S van Vuuren (SA); 72 R Reid (SA), J Van Zyl (SA), R Jacquelin (Fr), H Otto (SA), N Dougherty, P Lawrie, M Brier (Aut), M Siem (Ger), N Henning (SA), S Webster, I Poulter, J Rose, N Le Grange (SA), B Liddle (SA).