‘King’ Louis Oosthuizen overcame early morning kidney stones pain for a second day running to post a blistering bogey-free nine-under par 63 and open-up a three shot lead on day one of the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player.

The 2010 Open Champion had been awoken early on Wednesday morning with kidney stones and with the pain forcing him out of the Pro-Am.

He was then awoken at 3am earlier today (Thursday morning South African time) still struggling with the ‘stones’ that are a hard collections of salt and minerals often made up of calcium or uric acid. They form inside the kidney and can travel to other parts of the urinary tract.

“Considering that at 3am this morning, I didn’t think I was doing going to tee it up, I’m very chuffed with that round,”he said.

“I woke also yesterday with kidney stones and this morning was very uncomfortable, but it sort of eased at 6, 7am. You could see me walking slower and just going at everything a little slower out there.

“But I know I played good at the WGC-HSBC Champions two weeks ago and I know the swing is there, the putting’s there. I just need to be healthy to play.

Kidney stones are very small in size but very painful

“I just love this golf course. One of my first wins on the Sunshine Tour was here, the Dimension Data, and every time I play here, it brings back a lot of good memories.”

Indeed, Oosthuizen has claimed five of his nine European Tour wins on home soil but has yet to lift the trophy at the event they call “Africa’s Major”- although he has three top tens in his last four appearances at Gary Player Country Club.

His victory earlier this season at the South African Open hosted by the City of Johannesburg fulfilled a long held ambition to win his national championship and he now has the perfect platform to launch a challenge for a first Rolex Series win.

Belgian Thomas Detry is Oosthuizen’s nearest challenger at six under par, one shot ahead of Italy’s Guido Migliozzi, who is in contention for the Rookie of the Year crown after recording two wins in his debut season.

Defending champion Lee Westwood, three time winner Ernie Els and another home favourite in Zander Lombard are at four under par, while 2017 Race to Dubai winner Tommy Fleetwood and South African pair George Coetzee and Richard Sterne are amongst a group of ten players at three under par.