Ernie Els believes "mental freshness" was key to his recovery from an opening-day blip at the South African Open in Paarl on Thursday.
The 39-year-old, who has won the second oldest national open on four occasions and finished runner-up a further three times, carded a five-under-par round of 67 at the Pearl Valley Golf Estates to end the day three shots behind leader Fabrizio Zanotti.
Playing the back nine first, Els managed a bogey-free run that included three birdies as he reached the turn in 33.
But a double bogey at the par-four second saw him slip back to one under, before he picked up four shots in his final six holes to charge back into contention at the co-sanctioned European and Sunshine Tour event with a closing 34.
Speaking after his round, the world number nine attributed his late fightback to time off from the game - he played only three tournaments between early October and the end of November - explaining how it helped him on yesterday's second nine holes.
"I'm feeling mentally fresh," he said, "This game is so fickle, you know, when you play a lot of golf and you might not play the way you want to play, you get frustrated quite quickly.
"I think if I hit that shot, you know at number two, and say I had played in two or three events before this tournament, I might not have come back, who knows?
"But I'm mentally fresh and I'm ready for the battle, so to speak. I guess there are pluses and minuses not playing competitive golf for a long time.
"So you've got to get back into the arena, and I did that today and I established myself."
Els' finish enabled him to stay in touch with the leader, who has a host of players waiting to pounce on day two.
Swede Oskar Henningsson fired a seven-under-par round of 65, with eight players a further stoke back on 66, including South Africa's Rory Sabbatini and Britons Ross McGowan and Lee Westwood.
And Els felt he could have gone even better in round one, had he not messed up on hole two.
He added: "I hit one of my worst tee shots of the year on two. I could have been lower. I was trying to get lower but that one tee shot cost me.
"I played good on the front nine.
It was really looking good, and the wind was blowing this morning when we started off and then it died away.
"The 67 is a pretty good score, but conditions right now are perfect. You're going to see a lot of low scores."
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