Juan Coetzee (Golf RSA Photo)

He was nervous to start with, but Juan Coetzee caught alight on the back nine at Humewood Golf Club on Sunday with seven birdies on his way to an opening eight-under-par 64 in the first round of the South African Amateur Championship.

The 15-year-old Gauteng North junior started the day with five consecutive pars, and then he birdied the short par-three sixth to get his round into red numbers. He birdied the par-five seventh too, and, after three more quiet birdies, he got onto the birdie express from the par-five 11th.

He birdied that hole and made four more in a row before dropping his only shot of the day on the par-four 16th, but he made up for that with another brace of birdies on the par-five 17th and the closing par-four 18th.

For a boy from the parkland course at Irene Country Club, the links at Humewood could easily have been intimidating, but the wind played ball in the morning and Coetzee made hay.

“I was quite tense at the start, but once I got that birdie on six, the ball started rolling for me and the floodgates opened, you could say,” said the GolfRSA National Squad member. “Everything just went my way on the back nine and I just rode the wave of things going well.

“On 16, I managed to three-putt from about 10 feet, so that wasn’t too good. But, besides that, my putting was quite good, and my ball-striking was really good. That’s what gave me the opportunity to make all those birdies.

“I’m really glad to get such a good start, because it will allow me to be much more relaxed when I go out for the second round, knowing that a lot of the work has been done to get me into the match play stages.”

Coetzee was one stroke clear of home course favourite JP van der Watt, whose familiarity with Humewood showed in his bogey-free seven-under-par 65. Like Coetzee, Van der Watt made just two birdies on the front nine – on the same sixth and seventh holes – but he had started his round on the 10th and also turned on the magic with five birdies on the outward nine.

“The wind was blowing a bit, but it was southwest, which meant all the par-fives played with the wind,” he said. “I’m happy with the round. It’s good to get a good one under the belt early on when it’s a two-round sprint for places on the match play, but, tomorrow, we go again. I’m off early, and the wind is forecast to be up, so it will be good to get the round done early.”

Van der Watt shared second with France’s Louka Morin, who made three birdies on the front nine, and six on the back nine. He started that homeward stretch with a bogey on the 10th – which used to be a par-five a long time ago – but he didn’t drop another shot for the rest of his round.

In fourth place on his own was the South African Golf Development Board’s Othimna Matiwana, who had eight birdies and two bogeys in his six-under-par 66.

Sukhman Singh of India rounded out the top five on five-under 67 alongside South Africans Vian Jansen van Vuuren, Ruben van der Berg and Logan Leisher.

South Africa’s number one amateur, Astin Wade Arthur, opened with a two-under-par 70, which included two double-bogeys – on the par-four second and the par-three 14th – was in a share of 12th.

After Monday’s final round of stroke play, the leading 64 will qualify to play in the match play stages. Those will comprise 18-hole knockout matches from Tuesday, with the second and third rounds on Wednesday, the quarter finals and semi finals on Thursday, and the final over 36 holes on Friday.

The winner of the 36-hole stroke play section will win the Proudfoot Trophy and a silver medal, while the winner of the match play will win the South African Amateur Championship Trophy and a gold medal.