JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Ireland's Paul McGinley showed no effects of six weeks of inactivity Thursday as he matched Welshman Stephen Dodd's six-under 66 to share the first round lead in the Dunhill Championship.
A Dublin native, McGinley arrived in South Africa having played just three times since the start of December, claiming he had turned into a "full-time football supporter" of his two favorite clubs, West Ham and Celtic, over the winter.
To make matters worse, his clubs arrived 24 hours late on Wednesday morning, giving the 35-year-old time for just one practice round. But, nothing held him back.
Starting on the 10th, the Ryder Cup player birdied the 12th, 16th and 18th to reach the turn in 33, and another birdie on the fifth. He sank a 15-foot putt for his sixth birdie to complete the round.
Playing partner Tim Clark of South Africa, who won the South African Open in Durban on Sunday, had moved into the outright lead at six-under, but then ran up a double-bogey five on the eighth and finished with a 69.
Clark dropped another shot on the last to drop back to three under, while the third member of the group, Andrew Coltart of Scotland, followed McGinley in for a birdie to card a 68, the same as local favorite Ernie Els.
McGinley and Dodd had a one-shot lead over seven golfers, including the South African trio of Hendrik Buhrmann, Nic Henning and James Kingston. Jamie Donaldson of Wales, France's Jean-Francois Remesy and Greg Owen and Mark Roe of Britain also
were at 5-under.
Roy Wegerle, the former QPR and Chelsea striker who qualified to play in the tournament on Tuesday, shot a 76 on Thursday.
The 37-year-old, who made 230 league appearances in England for five clubs after signing for Chelsea in 1986, looked understandably nervous as he teed off, but promptly hit his second shot to the opening hole to within a foot of the hole for
an opening birdie.
He was unable to maintain that start however, and bogeys at the fourth, ninth, 10th and 14th dropped him back to three over par.
Wegerle also bogeyed the 14th, where he found the water and did well to salvage a five, and was unable to birdie either the 16th or 18th, both reachable par-fives.
