Louis de Jager's early 65 held up for the entire first round of the 54-hole BMG Classic at the Glendower Golf Club on Friday.

His seven-under-par effort was kick-started by a birdie on the opening hole, and, with good friend and trainer Garth Milne on his bag, he turned in a bogey-free card to take the early lead by two shots from Chris Swanepoel and Shaun Norris.

"He's a good golfer himself and he helped me a lot with course management," said De Jager, who got his maiden Sunshine Tour win in the Suncoast Classic in Durban in August.

"It was much better today and I think that's the one part of my game I had to improve. It shows if you think a bit you can improve a lot."

He turned in three-under 33, and promptly birdied 10 and 11 to get to five-under early in his homeward nine.

Then he got a two on the 158-metre 15th: "I hit my tee shot a bit fat, and I made a 55-foot putt, my best of the day, for birdie there," he said.

Albert Pistorius came the closest of the afternoon players to reeling him in with his five-under 67, but three late bogeys stopped him from taking possession of the lead.

Last week's Sunshine Tour winner Brandon Pieters, who won his third title of the year at the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf Final at Simola, also played well, overcoming a bogey on the second and another on the 10th to sign for a four-under 68.

Pistorius shares second with Swanepoel and Norris, while Pieters was tied at fifth with Rudy Whitfield, Graham DeLaet, Marc Cayeux and defending champion Doug McGuigan.

Swanepoel and Norris both eagled the 500-metre par-five 15th, but there, the similarities between their rounds ended: Swanepoel dropped a shot on the 12th and made four birdies, while Norris made three bogeys and six birdies in his 67.

DeLaet jetted into South Africa specifically for this tournament: "I am playing to win, as I do in every tournament," he said, "but I am flying out on Sunday night again straight after the finish. I've been in Europe for the past few weeks, and it will be good to see my wife again."

Leader or not, De Jager was off to the putting green after his round, but was largely satisfied with his experiment: "It's been good to have someone with a different viewpoint from me," he said.

"Garth can see stuff differently. It was the first time I had him on the bag, and I think it made a lot of difference."