Stenson prospers in Sun City as Willett's struggles go on

Open champion Stenson can end the season as European No 1 for the second time in four years with victory in South Africa, provided Sheffield’s Willett finishes outside the top 10.

The 40-year-old Swede found himself just a shot off the lead following an opening 69 as playing partner Willett could only card a 75, his 10th score over par in his last 12 rounds.

“I’m very pleased,” said Stenson. “It was below average on the front nine and I hit a good shot into eight and drained a nice birdie putt on nine to turn in red figures.

“I hit it nicely on the back nine and rounded off with some good birdies on 15, 16, 17 and a good par save on last. I’m very happy with that round.

“It would be nice to wrap up the Race to Dubai, but I just want to play as well as I can for these two weeks and see where it takes me. Of course you’re always going to look a little bit and see what the other guys are doing, but at the end of the day I’ve got to focus on my game and I managed to do that, so I’m happy with (Thursday’s) work.”

Willett had topped the money list since winning his first major title at the Masters in April, but was overtaken when he could only finish 75th in the 78-man field in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, where Stenson was joint second.

Stenson did not contest last week’s Turkish Airlines Open, where Willett finished joint 68th, only reducing his deficit from 261,387 to 252,163 points.

Willett got off to the ideal start with a birdie from five feet on the first, but ran up a triple-bogey eight on the second after a wayward approach that forced him to take a penalty drop on the third tee.

From there the 29-year-old found a greenside bunker and needed two attempts to escape, before further bogeys on the third and eighth completed a front nine of 40.

The world No 11 carded three birdies and two bogeys on the back nine to finish three over par, seven off the lead shared by compatriot Ross Fisher, Chile’s Felipe Aguilar and Korea’s Wang Jeunghun.

Fisher was four under par after 10 holes and was delighted to recover from his only bogey of the day on the 17th with a birdie on the last.

Willett’s fellow Sheffielder Matt Fitzpatrick had five bogeys and just one birdie in his four-over-par 76.