Lucky golfer gets 'break of the century'

Sometimes in sport you just need a bit of fortune to go your way and for golfer Nacho Elvira, the good luck came in the form of the "break of the century."

The Spaniard carded a two-under 70 in the opening round at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa but it could have been much worse.

Elvira started on the back nine and after suffering an early blemish with a double bogey at 11, he rattled off a succession of birdies to get himself back in contention.

But it was at the par-five ninth where Elvira copped one of the kindest let-offs imaginable from those usually unforgiving golfing Gods.

Elvira's approach shot sailed over the green and onto the downslope, bouncing at speed towards the water hazard below.

But in a hefty slice of fortune, the ball caught a rock protruding from the water and rocketed back up onto the green, stopping a few metres a way from the pin.

Unfortunately, Elvira missed the birdie putt but his round of 70 left him just three shots off the early pace set by Bernd Wiesberger, whose 67 gave him a one-shot lead after the first round.

The four-time European Tour champion was level par at the turn, but surged up the leaderboard with six birdies and just the one bogey on the back nine.

Wiesberger took the outright lead with an eighth gain of the day at the last following a glorious approach shot as he eyes a second victory of the season in the penultimate event.

Branden Grace is among a quartet of players just one stroke behind Wiesberger, recovering from being two over after four by coming up with an eagle three at 14 and four birdies.

Victor Dubuisson, Scott Jamieson and Julian Suri, striving to seal a spot in the top 60 in the Race to Dubai standings in order to be among the field at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next week, also put themselves in contention with rounds of 68.