From left: Scotland’s Scott Jamieson in action during the opening round yesterday, and Ewen Ferguson had a strong start to his title defence. Pic. X/@DPWorldTour
Doha, Qatar: It wasn’t an ideal day for fans at the Doha Golf Club (DGC) but Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier had a successful opening round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, curtailed by the weather.
The duo, which had early starts yesterday, fired seven-under-par rounds of 65 to share a one-stroke lead as sandstorm then thunder and lightning in the afternoon halted the play with 65 players yet to complete their first rounds.
Defending champion Ewen Ferguson also had a strong start as he was joint third along with fellow Scotsmen Stephen Gallacher and Robert MacIntyre, and Spain’s Santiago Tarrio after carding 66.
Golfers during the opening round. The first round will resume at 6:30am.
Jamieson, who started with Italy’s Guido Migliozzi and America’s Sean Crocker in one of the early groups, fired birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to cap a bogey-free first round in the $3.75m DP World Tour event. It was a solid start for the Scotsman, who is battling to stay in the Tour in the last-counting competition of the regular season.
“Delighted with that start. It was pretty solid tee to green and I managed to hole some putts today, which has probably let me down in the last few weeks - certainly been hitting the ball well enough to do better than I have done - but today was a different story,” said Jamieson, who is currently 119th in Race to Dubai Rankings with 116 players on the season-long standings set to retain their spots for the next season.
“It was lovely (being out first). The only problem is it is so humid but you obviously get less wind as you always know you are going to get wind here in the afternoon and the course is a little softer as well so, thankfully, I was able to take advantage of that,” he added.
Hillier hit birdies in 16th and 18th after six straight pars and then eagle from 14 feet at the first hole as he finished the bogey-free round with five birdies.
A general view during the first round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters at Doha Golf Club.
“You have to battle with the heat this week. A little bit of wind out there made it bearable. I just didn’t do much wrong, had a good stretch through the middle that put me in a good position and kept my foot down from there,” the New Zealander said before weather suspended the play.
A bogey in the fourth cost Ferguson, who had the opening round of seven birdies with Tarrio finishing the bogey-free round firing six birdies.
“A very good round after a very early wake up. The course was easier early this morning because the wind is coming in. This course is very tough when it’s windy," said Tarrio.
“Without wind, when you can hit good tee shots it’s easier because the fairways are narrow. When you catch the fairways you have more birdie opportunities.”
Finland’s Kalle Samooja and Sami Valimaki along with Sean Crocker, Thriston Lawrence, Andy Sullivan, Pablo Larrazabal and Joshua Grenville-Wood were on joint seventh place with five under par. The first round action will resume at 6.30am this morning .
