World number five Retief Goosen blazed a first-round 64 to stamp his authority on the Volkswagen Masters-China golf tournament in Beijing on Thursday.
Two eagles and five birdies against one bogey put the South African on top of the leader board at eight under par, two shots ahead of Canada’s Darren Griff and three better than United States Open champion Michael Campbell, as play continued.
Playing the back nine first at Jinghua Golf Club, Goosen parred his first four holes and then went on a hot streak, going birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie from 14 to 17.
The double US Open champion hit two more birdies after the turn before drawing gasps from the gallery with another eagle at the par-five seventh to put down an early marker in the $300 000 Asian Tour event.
”It’s obviously great to get off to a good start in the tournament. Now I’ve got something to build on for the rest of the three rounds that’s ahead,” said Goosen.
”Obviously there’s a long way to go still but I’m very happy to start off like this. You can’t win the tournament in the first round, so I’m just going to keep playing well and see what happens.”
Campbell, playing in the group behind Goosen, was just happy to remain in touch with his five-under round, in which he matched the South African’s eagle at the par-five 16th.
”Seeing Retief’s backside all day today was quite different,” he said. ”Obviously he played great and was holing all his putts. I think most of the par-fives are reachable. They are very short for us this week.”
Campbell was plagued by muscle pain from new insoles in his shoes and complained that local journalists seemed oblivious to course etiquette, with a TV cameraman even picking up his ball at one point.
”My second shot on hole four was past the pin and a cameraman picked the ball up and gave it to me. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ and told him to put it back,” he said.
”It’s probably their first time on a golf course and they’ve got no idea — they’re always moving across your line,” he added.
Campbell’s group partner Li Chao, the former Chinese amateur champion who won the inaugural China Tour event this month, ignored the distractions to shoot a four-under-par 68 and claim a share of provisional fourth place.
”At the start, I was shaking on the first hole because I was playing with Campbell and [Philip] Price,” he said. ”Even on the first putt I was shaking pretty bad. But slowly I began to feel more comfortable and overall I felt pretty good.”
About half of the 149 players were in the clubhouse as play continued in the $300 000 Volkswagen Masters-China, the first event of the second half of this year’s Asian Tour. — Sapa-AFP