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| November 9, 2001 | Friday | Shaba’an 22, 1422 |
Poulter takes first round lead
JEREZ (Spain), Nov 8: England’s Ian Poulter cashed in on near-perfect conditions at the Montecastillo Golf Club on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the Volvo Masters with a blemish-free round of 64.
The Englishman, fresh from finishing third at last week’s Italian Open, reeled off six birdies and an eagle-three at the 16th to move one shot ahead of Australia’s Peter Lonard, who had set the early pace with a 65.
Irishman Paul McGinley produced a flawless 66, after finishing eagle-par-birdie, while his compatriot Padraig Harrington and Australia’s Adam Scott shared fourth place on 67.
European number one Retief Goosen also kept in touch with the lead and, despite carding two sixes, the South African ended the day just four strokes off the pace on 68 in the final event of the season.
A brilliant birdie-birdie-eagle start in bright sunshine had moved the U.S. Open champion to four-under-par after just three holes.
Although he hit his drive out of bounds at the fifth to run up a double-bogey six and found water at the par-five 16th to drop another shot, he managed to birdie six, eight and 12 to stay in contention for his fourth European title of the year.
Goosen secured the 2001 European order of merit crown two weeks ago after his playoff victory in the Madrid Open, and he was officially presented with the trophy after his opening round at Montecastillo on Thursday.
Poulter, who won the 2001 European rookie of the year award, completed loops of 33 and 31 to return his lowest first-round score on the European Tour.
Rifling his approaches into the hard Montecastillo greens with unerring accuracy, he holed birdie putts from just four feet at the seventh and from five feet at the short 11th.
He set up his eagle at the 517-yard 16th with a good drive down the middle followed by a seven-iron approach to 15 feet, and then birdied the 17th from 20 feet to get to eight-under for the day.
Lonard, who has won twice on his home Australasian Tour, reeled off six birdies in his first 12 holes. Although he faltered slightly when he bogeyed the par-four 15, he bounced back immediately with a superb eagle at the 517-yard 16th.
Leading first scores (Britain unless stated):
64 Ian Poulter
65 Peter Lonard (Australia)
66 Paul McGinley (Ireland)
67 Adam Scott (Australia), Padraig Harrington (Ireland)
68 Brian Davis, Retief Goosen (South Africa)
69 Gary Evans, Mark McNulty (Zimbabwe), Nick O’Hern (Australia), Anders Hansen (Denmark), Thomas Levet (France), David Howell, Lee Westwood, Tony Johnstone (Zimbabwe), Bernhard Langer (Germany), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Justin Rose, Dean Robertson
70 Mark Mouland, Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark), Brett Rumford (Australia), Steve Webster, Stephen Gallacher, Raymond Russell, Gregory Havret (France), Charlie Wi (South Korea), Roger Wessels (South Africa), Andrew Coltart, Mathias Gronberg (Sweden), Phillip Price, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Darren Clarke—Reuters
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