Earlier this year Ernie Els was listing the young pretenders of whom he, at the ripe old age of 32, had to be fearful.

"There's Charlie Howell in America," he said, "there's Adam Scott from Australia, there's Sergio, of course, from Spain, Luke Donald, Paul Casey from England and Trevor Immelman from my country . . ."

Whoa! Hold on, Els was asked, who's this Immelman? "Don't worry," replied the South African, "you'll find out".

Yesterday, it could be said, was a part of the discovery process as Immelman, a talented 22-year-old, went round the Paris National course in 64, one off the course-record, in the French Open.

He had eight birdies for a 36-hole total of 132, 12-under-par, an impressive performance over a difficult course.

Jean-Francois Remesy and Jose Maria Olazabal were both four behind with the Spaniard keen to maintain an amazing sequence of results - he has not been out of the top five in Europe this year and only once out of the top 10 in eight events in the United States.

This is the first time that Immelman has led a European Tour event after 36 holes and it is an achievement which, while expected in some quarters, has been quite a time in coming.

He is competing in his 50th tour event as a professional, spread over three seasons, and, while he played the third round in the last group in the ANZ championship in Australia this year, he was standing only second.

Moreover, he could not build on that position, eventually tying for eighth and equalling his best-ever finish.

But if he is driving in gingerly fashion around his learning curve, he has no doubts as to where he wants to get to.

"I want to be the best player in the world," he said yesterday. "There aren't many professional golfers in the world who can look you in the eye and say that they don't want to be the best in the world - all of us do. But I'm realising that you mustn't push it."

Yesterday he hit a shot that he described as the best of his career. It was at the 15th, a par-four with a green surrounded by water, and he hit a seven-iron from 171 yards, a shot that had to be faded to get at a pin position on the right of the green.

Immelman, a natural drawer of the ball, hit it so perfectly that it finished all of one inch from the pin.