The Woodhill golfer opened with a birdie and reeled in four more on the back nine at Maccauvlei Golf Club to join fellow Gauteng North golfer Albert Venter, Brandon Cloete from Southern Cape and Luke Jerling from Eastern Province in pole position.
The joint leaders have a one shot advantage over Werner van Wyk from Central Gauteng and are two shots clear of Boland’s Herman Loubser, Slade Fick and fellow Ekurhuleni amateur Dylan Mostert, who triumphed in the Central Gauteng Open on Sunday.
Venter is bidding for a second provincial title in as many weeks after breaking through in the Eastern Province Open a fortnight ago.
The State Mines junior was in contention again at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington on the weekend and finished in a tie for seventh.
Jerling and Cloete also surrendered just one shot each.
FIRST ROUND SCORES
67 - Philip Kruse; Luke Jerling; Albert Venter; Brandon Cloete
68 - Werner van Wyk
69 - Dylan Mostert; Slade Fick; Herman Loubser
70 - Andre Nel; Darin de Smidt
71 - Cameron Moralee; Angus Ellis-Cole; Amerigo Renieri; David Mcintyre; Jason Viljoen
72 - Aubrey Beckley; Theunis Bezuidenhout; Blaine Dormehl; Pieter Swartz; Ruhan van Dijk; Kyle Barker; Matthew Kiewitz; Elmo Barnard
73 - Garrick Higgo; Jacques Schutte; Henri van der Walt; Richard Maree; Melvin Geldenhuys; Chris van Tonder; Neal Herman; Bryce Leach
74 - Karl Lehmacher; Malcolm Mitchell; Allan Lones; Keegan de Lange
75 - Dean Martin; Joe Lekhasi; Marc de Jager; Reinhardt Blaauw; JP Schmidt; James du Preez
76 - Jason Smith; Mohit Mediratta; Evance Vukeya; Walter Malevu; Hein Dreyer; Jihwan Yeom; Nico du Buisson; Jack Duthie; Michael Pienaar
77 - Byron Sampson; Loris Schuepbach SUI; Jason Rossiter; Niel du Preez; Lloyd Herbst; Marco de Beer
78 - Ricki Dembo; Danus Kruger; FG Dorfling; Sean Bradley; Phumlani Mkhoma; Angelo Marques; Jacques de Villiers; Tjaart van Wyk; Christo Strydom
79 - Hendrikus Stoop; Nicholaus Frade
80 - Stephen Pienaar; Dalan Tait; Riaan Swanepoel; Ryan Dreyer; Martin Langa; Jadrick Fourie; Samuel Gouma
81 - Daniel Joubert; Carlo Oreilly; Fritz Orren; Shaun Bernstein; Waldi Potgieter
82 - Blaine Sansom; Matthew Jacobs; Stephen du Plessis; John Synodinos
83 - Brett Langston; Nico le Roux; Lindani Mthiyane; Werner Burger
85 - Adriel Poonan; Adam Sheldrake
86 - Juan Combrinck; Arno van Heerden; Joe Raliopane
88 - Simphiwe Mfene
89 - Jacques Bisschoff; Adriaan Nel
ARTICLE: LALI STANDER
