Rory McIlroy struggles as Sergio Garcia leads way in South Africa

The Spaniard hit an eight under par 64 to lead the pack by four shots while McIlroy had a disappointing day at the office.

Garcia is four clear of another former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel plus Mikko Korhonen and Mike Lorenzo-Vera.

Garcia - going for a second consecutive win, having triumphed at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters last month - said in quotes on the European Tour website on Thursday: “It felt great. I rolled the ball nicely, I made some good putts here and there.

“It was one of those rounds where things happened nicely to me. I think I played very smart, I probably wasn’t swinging unbelievably but I kept it under control and kept the ball in play all the time which is difficult to do here.

“I managed to guess some of the winds here right and that is very, very difficult. When you can do that here, it’s nice to be able to shoot a score like this.”