Hampshire golf ace Sam Hutsby has enjoyed a lightning fast start to the European Tour’s Joburg Open.

The Liphook star shot six-under-par in today’s opening round, to leave him tied for eighth and three shots off the lead.

Hutsby’s bogey-free round saw him birdie the first, eighth, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th holes of the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club’s challenging East Course.

Tomorrow, he will switch to the West Course, where scoring has actually proved better.

After severe food poisoning affected him in his last two events, the 26-year-old is pleased to be back feeling like himself again.

“I’ve only just kind of recovered from that, so it’s been a really tough few days,” he told the Tour after his round.

“I didn’t really do a lot this week, to be honest.

“I did a small bit of practice on Tuesday, for about 15, 20 minutes.

“I felt like I was hitting it well, but I didn’t kind of want to waste my energy, so I just walked the course, didn’t play any holes and it seemed to obviously work out pretty well today.”

Hutsby continued: “I’ve missed my last six cuts, so I’ve been playing really poor this year, so I’ll be pretty confident that I can obviously make the weekend now and hopefully try and push on.

“I played really solid today. I could have been probably double figures under par, missed a few short putts, but it’s all positive at the minute.”

He added: “The way I’ve been playing, it’s just nice to play some under-par rounds, so I’m not going to get too ahead of myself, and obviously the goal tomorrow is just to try and eliminate the mistakes again.”

Stoneham’s Richard Bland has also started well in the tournament, shooting three-under-par in his first round, on the West Course, to put him in a share of 43rd position.