Branden Grace holed a 9-iron approach at the 18th hole to get within a shot of Brandon Pieters for the Africa Open lead after Thursday's partially completed first round. Grace's eagle lifted him to 6-under 67, with Pieters' early 66 holding up when play was halted with 24 players still on the course in gathering darkness at East London Golf Club. A dense coastal fog in the morning had caused an 1½-hour delay at the European Tour event. "I was just trying to hit it close," Grace said. It was an exclamation point to a round that opened with a birdie but faltered with a bogey on the fourth. "I was a bit nervous about what that might have done to my day," he said. "But the turning point came when I sank a good 15-footer for birdie on the 10th, and that was the first of three in a row for me." He bogeyed the 14th -- a hole players battled all day -- but birdied the 16th and then came the moment of magic on the 18th. He shared second with the fellow South African Jaco van Zyl, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet of France, Fredrik Ohlsson of Sweden, Elliot Saltman of Scotland and Miles Tunnicliff of England. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=5995988
