Nedbank Challenge: Angel Cabrera's brutal display of power hitting blew away the rest of the field in Sun City and gave him a two-shot lead in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

The Argentinian, winner of the European Tour's flagship event the BMW Championship this year, began the day four shots off Darren Clarke's five-under-par benchmark but by the end of his round had moved two ahead of the Dungannon man.

Cabrera, the longest hitter on the European Tour, took a driver at nearly every hole and destroyed the testing Gary Player Country Club layout with an eight-under-par course-record round of 64.

He had nine birdies and dropped only one shot, at the fourth - ironically one of the shortest holes on the course.

Cabrera had a great run around the turn with six birdies in seven holes from the ninth, the 603-yard 14th providing a great example of the Cordoba native's devastating strength.

His drive left him just over 200 yards to the pin and, unbelievably, he hit an eight iron to within 15 feet and was only inches away with his eagle putt.

On a course that measures nearly 8,000 yards Cabrera never used more than a six iron for any approach shot, and although he hit only six of 14 fairways none of his opponents in the field of 12 could match his scoring.

"I am very surprised. I never thought that I was going to set a course record in my first visit to South Africa," said Cabrera, making his debut in the event after his best-ever season on the European Tour, where he finished fifth on the Order of Merit.

"Definitely it is a golf course I like. It suits me very well because I am playing very well with my driver and that helps a lot on this golf course. I am playing the driver on almost every hole.

"I also putted very well today but in order to putt well sometimes you have to be very solid and be close to the pin, which was something I did today also."

The next-best round was from Ryder Cup star Luke Donald. Playing alongside the Argentinian and also a debutant, he had a bogey-free 68 to leave him six under for the €3.36 million event and three off the lead.

"I played very solid today. I think the only time I really got close to a bogey was the first, where I had to hole about a 20-foot putt for par," said the Englishman.

"I missed a couple of putts but other than that I played very nicely. I was very consistent and hit quite a lot of greens today, which I did not do quite so well yesterday.

"I was giving myself a lot of chances and although I shot four under I had 30 putts so it could have been a little bit lower."

Clarke, who began the day with a one-stroke advantage over American Jim Furyk, had a steady front nine with two birdies and picked up another shot at the 10th to move to eight under.

However, he dropped his first shot of the tournament at the par-four 13th and somehow escaped with a par when his approach to the 17th fell short but hit a rock and bounced back over the water to the fairway.

Defending champion Retief Goosen is fifth on five under after a tentative round of 69.

Goosen's South African compatriot Ernie Els continued his comeback from nearly five months out with a knee injury by shooting a 70 to be tied seventh with another South African, Tim Clark, on two-under-par.

Details in GOLF ROUND-UP