A late afternoon golfing lesson from legend Gary Player spurred Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke to his best performance ever at the Nedbank Challenge, a magnificent 66, just one shot off leaders Kenny Perry and Fiji's Vijay Singh.
The tips that Player, the course designer, provided - especially on how to play the short game - heralded a magnificent turn around for Clarke and put him in the frame for the huge winner's cheque of just over £700,000.
A solid 34 on the front nine opened things up for the Tyrone man, but he sneaked in almost unnoticed as most of the spectators were keeping an eye on defending champion Ernie Els, who shot a disappointing 72, or on the Perry and Singh show, with both rattling in the birdies.
Clarke struggled in yesterday's pro-am with his short game, and afterwards he asked Player for advice. What he got helped him click into gear in round one and could ultimately lead him to glory this weekend.
"I got a fantastic lesson out there on Wednesday in the bunker from Gary Player on how to play the course," said Clarke. "For 15 minutes, he gave me a lesson on how to chip out of the kikuyu. You probably wouldn't have thought it on 10, but he did and a couple of things just clicked here today, even into the main swing.
"He got me to make sure I kept the club on the way back."
Clarke started his round off with a birdie on the fourth after a six iron which landed within 15 feet. The six iron proved the tonic again on the sixth with an approach shot which also landed 15 feet shy and was finished off for birdie.
But it was Clarke's shot on 10 that got the crowds talking and really sparked his round. Having found the kikuyu on the fringe of the green some 25 feet from the hole, he fluffed a tricky shot leaving his ball in the same place. He responded by clipping his next effort straight into the hole for a magnificent birdie. By Clarke's own admission though, he could not even see the ball on the first chip.
He said: "I just couldn't see it - I had a full swing at it and didn't move it.
"I had another swing at it, and I holed it. I just cleared the path so that I could get the club head on it the second time."
The only sour point for Clarke was his view that the organisers should have invited more Europeans to play. Fifteen of the 18 players competing in the invitation-only field are from the Presidents Cup, leaving just three spots for Europe, which according to Clarke simply is not enough.
"I am very disappointed that there are not more Europeans in this field. The Europeans have supported this tournament for a long time, and the difference between 18 and 20 players, with two more Europeans, doesn't seem that much to me," he added.
The other Europeans had mixed results today - Padraig Harrington shot 72 while Spain's Sergio Garcia faired better with a 68.
Perry and Singh were awesome in their handling of the course, where conditions were good for scoring as the fairways and greens are soft and held the ball. Young Australian Adam Scott and his compatriot Robert Allenby carded impressive 66s, as did American Chris DiMarco, who produced the comeback of the day.
After a quiet start, he missed the fairway on the eighth to score a double bogey six. But just as his round was unravelling, he steadied himself and rattled off eight birdies in a row to come home in 29 and join the leaderboard on the first evening.