SUN CITY, Dec 2: South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, England's Lee West wood and Stuart Appleby of Australia held the lead on two-under-par 70 after the opening day of the Ned bank Golf Challenge on Thursday.

The field was making heavy weather of it at the Gary Player Country Club course as it was the first time in the 24-year history of this tournament, unofficially known as Africa's "Major", that no-one player managed to break 70 in the first round.

This is over 200 metres longer than Whistling Straits, the venue for this year's US PGA Championship, which was the longest course in Major championship history. World No 3 Els, a three-time Major winner, sank a 20-footer for par at the opening hole which he said settled the nerves.

SCORES:

70 - Ernie Els (RSA), Retief Goosen (RSA), Lee Westwood (ENG), Stuart Appleby (AUS)

71 - Nick Price (ZIM), Chris DiMarco (USA)

74 - Jim Furyk (USA), Todd Hamilton (USA)

75 - Fredrik Jacobson (SWE), Sergio Garcia (SPA), Jay Haas (USA) 80 - Chad Campbell (USA)

GROOM HEADS TRIO

HONG KONG: Australia's Adam Groom fired a 64 to take a one-shot lead over European Ryder Cup trio Padraig Harrington, Miguel Angel Jimenez and David Howell in the first round of the Hong Kong Open on Thursday.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES:

64 Adam Groom (Australia)

65 Padraig Harrington (Ireland), David Howell, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Charl Schwartzel (South Africa)

66 Scott Barr (Australia), Derek Fung (Hong Kong), Gregory Havret (France), Harmeet Kahlon (India), Bryan Saltus (U.S.), Alessandro Tadini (Italy)

AUSTRALIAN PGA

SYDNEY: Leading scores after the first round of the Australian PGA championship at the par-72 Coolum golf course on Thursday:

63 Bob Estes (U.S.)

64 Craig Spence

67 Corey Pavin (U.S.), Gavin Flint, Greg Chalmers, Adam Crawford, Wayne Perske, Andrew Buckle, Dean Alaban, James Nitties

68 Greg Norman, Craig Parry, Peter O'Malley, John Senden. -Reuters