'There was a drinks bottle with rat poison in it... I took a sip'

Christiaan Bezuidenhout's best major result was finishing 12th at the US Open earlier this year

The Open leaderboard, round one

-4 Bezuidenhout (SA), Olesen (Den), Li (Chn), Fitzpatrick (Eng), English (US); -3 Jordan (Eng), Scheffler (US), Kawekanjana (Tha), Hatton (Eng)

Selected: -2 Westwood (Eng), Rai (Eng), Rose (Eng); -1 Rahm (Spa), Lowry (Ire), McIlroy (NI), Kimsey (Eng); Level MacIntyre (Sco); +1 McKibbin (NI); +2 Fleetwood (Eng); +4 Harrington (Ire), Clarke (NI)

Full leaderboard

Christiaan Bezuidenhout is used to overcoming the odds.

At the age of two, the South African was left fighting for his life after taking a sip from a soft drink bottle he found on the street at home that contained rat poison.

"Somehow I managed to open it and took a sip," said Bezuidenhout.

"At the hospital they basically told my parents we got there just in time. It was a matter of minutes."

Bezuidenhout, who earned a five-way share of the lead at The Open after the first round, had expected the bottle to contain Coca-Cola, but it had been repurposed to hold the rat poison.

The then toddler escaped alive, but the impact of the incident was life-changing.

The 31-year-old was left with a damaged nervous system and a severe stammer, which saw him subjected to bullying throughout his education in Delmas - a small town east of Johannesburg.

It makes his sporting career all the more remarkable as he looks to build on being an early joint-leader at Royal Portrush.

Bezuidenhout finished his opening round with a four-under 67, in a five-way tie for first place.

Whether he can last the distance remains to be seen, but Bezuidenhout - a three-time title winner on the DP World Tour - is well versed in defying expectations.

'I was scared to speak'

Bezuidenhout developed a speech impediment after the freak accident that nearly took his life at the age of two.

The condition worsened throughout his childhood, leading to the South African developing a severe case of anxiety.

"I was basically just living in my own world because I was always scared of having to engage in conversation," Bezuidenhout said in 2019.

"When I talked to people, I knew I would struggle and it would take time for me to deliver my words, so I always had a fear of answering the phone, saying my name or being asked a question."

'I thought my life was over'

Bezuidenhout saw speech therapists throughout his teenage years in a bid to improve his speech.

By the age of 15, he was regularly taking medication to treat the anxiety that accompanied the condition.

But in 2014, at the age of 20, Bezuidenhout received the news that he had failed a drugs test at the Amateur Championship at Portrush.

He had made organisers aware that he was taking beta blockers to treat his anxiety.

But he was given a two-year ban - later reduced to nine months on appeal - for failing the drugs test.

"It was reduced to nine months because I wasn't using the medication to better my golf," Bezuidenhout told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.