The Southern Cape is home turf for Branden Grace and he made it count with a fine five-under-par 68 in the opening round of the Volvo Golf Champions at the Fancourt Links on Thursday.

“I’m feeling good, feeling great, it’s nice to play at Fancourt in front of a home crowd and I’m hitting the ball well,” a content Grace said after his round, which left him in a tie for second, four shots behind Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts.

Grace and Thomas Aiken are the leading South Africans after the first round, with Grace enjoying a purple patch after he finished in a tie for 14th at the Africa Open and then claimed the honours in last week’s Joburg Open.

It was the 23-year-old’s first European Tour victory, but Grace has not allowed the good fortune to go to his head or disturb his focus.

“I don’t think the win has settled in so far, I haven’t really had time to sit back and think about it or what happens in the next couple of weeks. But my concentration is still there, although I am a bit tired. I’m on a roll and I just need to keep my head down and run with it,” Grace said.

The George Golf Club representative obviously knows nearby Fancourt extremely well and he admitted that he never thought he’d be as many as four shots behind after shooting a 68.

“You don’t really expect to be four behind after shooting a 68. That’s one helluva score Colsaerts shot and it will be nice to see how he follows up. But he hits it a mile, which definitely helps around here. He’ll be getting close to a lot of the greens and then if he holes some putts, he can come off with that sort of score. It’s nice to know that sort of score is out there,” Grace said.

Life has changed immensely for Grace thanks to his Joburg Open triumph and his mere presence in this elite 35-man field is one of the benefits. He had the privilege of playing with Ryder Cup captain and two-time Masters champion Jose-Maria Olazabal on Thursday.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it, he’s one of my role-models. He’s a great gentleman and you can just see by the way he conducts himself on the course that he is all-class. He’s the Ryder Cup captain for a reason.

“He cracked the odd joke, he told me when I did something good, a good swing, good shot. It was awesome playing with him and nice to get off to a good start playing with somebody like that,” Grace said.

The former Fancourt Foundation member began with a birdie on the first hole, but the putter then misbehaved on the par-four third and fourth holes, leading to successive bogeys. But the highlight of his round came on the 568-yard ninth hole, which he eagled.

“I hit my drive over the trap and had 257 yards to the green. The green is really hard to hit and you’ve got to miss it in the right place. I hit a great three-wood and missed it right, from where I chipped in.”

Grace admitted that the eagle had “jump-started” his round and he birdied the next two holes as he cruised through the back nine in four-under-par 33.

A quarter of the Fancourt Links is made up of par-threes and Nicolas Colsaerts birdied them all on his way to a commanding four-shot lead in the first round of the Volvo Golf Champions on Thursday.

Colsaerts is known for his no-holds-barred driving off the tee, but his brilliant nine-under-par 64 was actually set apart by his superb iron-play and clinical putting as he birdied the par-three second, eighth, 11th and 17th holes.

“I’ve never birdied all the par-threes on a course before and you don’t see that on a scorecard that often. You’re not really looking for birdies on the par-threes, I’m thinking more that I can reach most of the par-fives in two, so it was a bonus,” Colsaerts said after shattering the Fancourt Links course record.

The Belgian was level-par through seven holes after bogeying the par-four sixth hole after a three-putt, but Colsaerts, playing his first competitive round at Fancourt, began to work out the intricacies of the course as he finished the front nine with successive birdies. His final stretch was nothing short of magnificent as he closed with four straight birdies – 3-4-2-4.

“I’m very happy, to have the course record on a course like this is quite a thing. I’ve heard about this place for a long time, after the President’s Cup was played here and it being the number one course in South Africa,” Colsaerts said.

Although the wind played a relatively minor part for Fancourt, Colsaerts said he still had to be watchful.

“It was moving a little bit, it switched at times. It was pretty calm at the start but then there was a bit more wind after the ninth. You still had to look at it. I hope it stays like this because the course will be pretty difficult if the wind gets up,” Colsaerts, who was in the fourth two-ball off the first tee at 10am, said.

Apart from the irritating three-putt on the sixth, the only time the 29-year-old was semi-concerned was on the short par-four 14th hole, when he found the fairway bunker. Colsaerts chipped out to just short of the green and then made his up-and-down for par.

The world number 76 seems to have a thing for Volvo-sponsored tournaments, having won the Volvo China Open in April and then reaching the semifinals of the Volvo World Matchplay Championships in Andalucia before losing to Ian Poulter.

“I like to think I’m having a love affair with Volvo, but there are still three rounds to go!” Colsaerts laughed. “But the Matchplay – beating Goosen, McIlroy, Vegas and McDowell – was when I really understood that I can be a top-class golfer.”

The quality of his golf on Thursday was immaculate and the big-hitting lover of house music was still enjoying the feeling when he spoke to the media.

“I just seemed to hole out all day, every birdie was from close range and I took every chance from six-to-eight feet. I was hitting my irons very close and, after you’ve done that three or four times, you just keep firing at the pins. I kept hitting the fairways as well and it was probably one of the best rounds I’ve played, if not the best,” Colsaerts said.

The fact that Charl Schwartzel shot a six-under-par 67 in Wednesday’s Pro-Am will be daunting news for the rest of the field teeing it up in the Volvo Golf Champions event at the Fancourt Links.

Schwartzel is the highest ranked golfer in the 35-man exclusive field at ninth in the world and the one aspect of his game that was lacking when he missed the cut in last week’s Joburg Open seems to be coming right.

“Last week, I missed the cut but I played decently, I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole! I only missed four greens in 36 holes and my game feels even better now. I just hope the putts go in … I made some nice putts today,” Schwartzel said after the Pro-Am.

The Masters champion is looking forward to a tough challenge at Fancourt – his wonderful ball-striking makes it a given that he’ll be able to get on to the greens in regulation more often than most.

“I like tough courses. Last week and at the Africa Open, it just became a putting contest, whoever putted the best wins. But there’s a lot more to it here.”

Not that the Fancourt greens are a cakewalk either and Schwartzel warned that it would not be easy for the European contingent to succeed if they do not have knowledge of the course.

“The surfaces of the green are so good, there’s not much bounce so if the putt is on-line, it’s in. But the layout of the greens is pretty severe, there are some elephants buried under some of them and you need to avoid those areas.

“You need to know the course very well, especially the greens, before you hit your approach shots. The key is knowing what you’re doing before you hit your approach and you’re not going to get that from one practice round. There are some really big slopes and they can work for you, but they can also quickly bite you,” Schwartzel warned.

Colin Montgomerie has made some famously furious appearances in front of the press during his long and superb career, but he was all smiles and good wishes at Fancourt on Wednesday ahead of the Volvo Golf Champions.

“It’s the start of the year and my first time in this part of the world and it’s fantastic, we’re all saying the same thing. I’m looking forward to a new start with a new bag of Callaway clubs, I’m excited about this week, I feel like a rookie again. It’s a fresh start and a new year,” Montgomerie enthused.

The 48-year-old Scot has a top-class record of 31 European Tour wins and a particular affinity for links courses, having designed his own at Carton House in Ireland. Which makes Montgomerie a voice to be heard when it comes to rating the Fancourt Links after his two practice rounds on the par-73 layout.

“It’s an exceptional course, I believe it’s ranked number one in South Africa and therefore number one in Africa. And deservedly so, having played it twice now. I haven’t experienced the tournament pins yet, they’ve been in areas where we’re not going to hit to in the tournament and I’m looking forward to a stiffer challenge.

“It’s a great design, an exceptional challenge and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s in a similar style to Carton House – the bunkers are very severe, it’s a half-shot penalty if you land in them with their riveted faces. There’s a lot of sand and it’s soft, which is more difficult than if it was firm. The run-offs are also similar … all credit to Gary Player and the design team,” Montgomerie said.

The Ryder Cup legend dominated European golf in the 1990s, winning seven successive Orders of Merit, but he admitted the advent of technologically-boosted big-hitters has had a devastating effect on his winning chances these days.

“To compete with the longer hitters, I’ve got to putt very well because they have a huge advantage. Nicolas Colsaerts [in the Fancourt field] is probably the longest in the world and I’m giving away 60 yards to him. Where he, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen can go in with a five-iron, for me it’s a three-wood on to firm greens. So it’s a huge advantage for them – if they hit it straight and can find their ball off the tee,” Montgomerie said.

“But I hit the ball well today from tee to green, my irons were good enough and I drove safely. But I’ve never won anything without putting well, so I’ve got to hole out from inside 10 feet.”

Adding to the advantage of the longer hitters at Fancourt is the fact that there are five par-fives and only four par-threes and, with the blazing sun on Wednesday drying out the course, there should be more and more run on the fairways.

Montgomerie has been paired with young Tom Lewis, who is not the longest hitter off the tees, for Thursday’s first round and is looking forward to the experience.

Colsaerts will be playing with Holland’s Joost Luiten and Montgomerie is relieved he won’t have to experience what happened to him the last time he partnered the Belgian.

“I was asked to do a drug test and both Nicolas and Stephen Gallacher just burst out laughing. They said it was for performance-enhancing drugs and I said it was a complete waste of time and I wanted my money back if that was the case. I’m hitting the ball 280 metres and they’re hitting it 340,” Montgomerie laughed.