Carvell, Rowe co-lead at Steyn City

Johannesburg - Matthew Carvell and Lyle Rowe carded a second round (greensomes) 11-under 61 to catapult themselves into a share of the lead after day one of the Steyn City Team Championship.

Day 1 saw the pros play a total of 36 holes with foursomes in the morning and greensomes in the afternoon, and, the pairing showed their class in a strong 96-man field.

"It was a bit unexpected. On the first nine, we got hot there and it literally felt like a blur. We got to seven-under after eight holes and we made a good par on 18 (their ninth hole of the round) and just tried to keep it going," explained Carvell.

The greensomes format sees the pros choose the best of the two tee shots and it allowed for some attacking play on the Steyn City layout.

"It's nice to know that once Lyle gets in play, I can have a bash. From there, Lyle's generally a better iron player so he would take my tee shot and it just worked out," Carvell added.

Neil Schietekat and Colin Nel share the lead on 13-under after the day's play and Schietekat was only smiles after 36 holes alongside his good friend.

"We're definitely having a lot of fun," said Schietekat. "We've been playing together since we were in standard five, so we kind of know each others game. He's a good putter and I’m a good iron player and we worked it out who should be hitting into the greens and who should be putting."

Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Kyle McClatchie fired to a total of 12-under-par to sit just one back of the leaders.

"We played really solidly out there today," said McClatchie of the 65 he and Bezuidenhout fired together in the morning foursomes. 

"We made tons of birdies, we finished really nicely too, so we're chuffed with what we've done so far."

Alongside Bezuidenhout and McClatchie on 12-under are Hennie du Plessis and Jean Hugo as well as the English pairing of Ross McGowan and Toby Tree.

With a standard betterball format on the cards for Wednesday, there's bound to be some low scoring around Steyn City to determine the inaugural Steyn City Team Championship.

Scores:

-13 - N Schietekat & C Nel 67 64, L Rowe & M Carvell 70 61

-12 - K McClatchie & C Bezuidenhout 65 67, H Du Plessis & J Hugo 66 66, R McGowan & T Tree 69 63

-11 - JJ Senekal & R West 68 65

-10 - C Cannon & N O'Briain 66 68, O Bekker & J Harding 69 65, T Ryan & H Porteous 68 66, A De Decker & M Rohwer 66 68

-9 - C Mowat & B Meyer 69 66, C Martin & T Gauche 67 68, L de Jager & W Dingle 69 66, S Ferreira & R Huysamen 69 66

-8 - T Spangenberg & NJ Arnoldi 67 69, M Williams & A Michael 71 65

-7 - K Barker & A Haindl 70 67, J Walters & R Tipping 69 68, T Moore & W Coetsee 70 67, F Coetzee & A Rosado 70 67

-6 - T Fisher Jnr & U van den Berg 73 65, C Swanepoel & M Bremner 75 63, J Ahlers & V Groenewald 69 69, J Harvey & M Hollick 69 69, B Easton & G Mulroy 69 69

Missed the cut:

-5 - JC Ritchie & J Prinsloo 72 67, O Strydom & D van Tonder 72 67, J Froneman & CJ du Plessis 71 68, H Loubser & D Van Niekerk 69 70, K Davidse & P Karmis 71 68

-4 - H Bruiners & J Hess 74 66, J Roos & R de Smidt 70 70, M Muthiya & J Kamte 72 68

-3 - M Nethunzwi & I Mazibuko 70 71, A Beckley & C Smit 75 (-6) [17]

-1 - D Van Den Bergh & J Viljoen 73 70, A Nel & R Nortje 75 68, D McGuigan & C Basson 76 67, JP Strydom & R van der Spuy 74 69, J Redman & M Palmer 71 (Par) [17]

Par - T Ferreira & S Ferreira 77 67

+1 - G Myburgh & T Lawrence 74 71, K Kim & O Sandys 75 70

+2 - L Jerling & A Van der Knaap 70 76

+3 - C Groenewald & T Thimba 76 71

+4 - M Mazibuko & L Ndwandwe 77 71

+5 - D Petersen & D Stephenson 74 75