Bekker, something of a shock winner at Mount Lawley Golf Club 12 months ago, took full advantage of idyllic afternoon conditions to match the course record of 7-under 65 and lead Victorian Todd Sinnott by one.

Another Victorian, Darcy Brereton, is in outright third after a round of 5-under 67 with Queensland’s Louis Dobbelaar and Victorian pair James Marchesani and Connor McDade both at 4-under.

Shortly after his WA win last October, Bekker and his wife decided to move their young family from South Africa to Perth, calling the WA capital home since January.

The 41-year-old played the TenGolf Group Pro-Am at Secret Harbour in May, where he shot 82, with birdies, quintuple bogeys and everything in between.

They were harsh lessons learned, Bekker making sure to visit Secret Harbour twice more in the months between that round and his sizzling start to his title defence.

“It’s funny, not really being Australian and having local knowledge, but yeah, it definitely helps,” said Bekker.

“The first time I played here, I played in a pro-am and I played horribly. Didn’t know where to go, what to hit.

“Some guys probably wouldn’t have played the golf course in this wind and obviously with some running fairways and stuff, it makes quite a big difference.

“Some holes, you could be a hundred yards difference between Tuesday and today with where your ball’s going to finish.

“I enjoy the golf course. I think it’s a golf course where you’ve got to position yourself well from the tee box, which I did today, so that was good. And then you can give yourself quite a few opportunities if you’ve managed to hit the good tee shots.”

West Australian great Terry Gale is the last player to successfully defend their WA Open title, going back-to-back in 1982 and 1983.

A nine-time winner on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, Bekker’s previous defences have all fallen short, making this week’s assignment clearly a tough one.

“I’ve had a couple of times where I’m defending on the same golf course where I go out and I’ve missed the cut. That’s happened twice at my own course,” said Bekker.

“It doesn’t happen often. It’s not a lot of people that can actually win regularly to start and then to win the same event, it’s a very, very small list.”

Sinnott had planned to be at the Macau Open on the Asian Tour this week but his category fell short of the final entry list.

He was forced to deal with the worst of the wet and breezy conditions on Thursday morning yet went out in 5-under before ultimately signing for a 66.

“I got off to a nice start in the tough weather, so I hit a lot of good iron shots and was playing well early. Got off to a nice start and kind of played solid coming in,” was Sinnott’s summary.

“It’s a very tricky golf course, very demanding. There’s no let-up throughout the course.

“You’ve definitely got to be on your game the whole time.”

A stint on the Asian Development Tour gave Brereton a foundation to bring into the new season as he chases a first Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia win.

He had back-to-back top-five finishes to start 2026 and believes he is now armed with the experience necessary to convert contending into a win.

“You learn how to prepare better, prepare smarter so you can sort of save energy here and there,” said Brereton.

“It’s a lot of golf that we play on this tour in a short amount of time. So just managing loads, obviously preparing the right way and just law of averages is keep hitting good shots and hopefully get rewarded.”

Although he shot 77 in Round 1, veteran Josh Younger produced one of the highlights of day one with a hole-in-one at the 162-metre par-3 17th.

The final two rounds of the WA Open will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports from 4pm AEDT Saturday and 2pm AEDT Sunday.