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| February 1, 2002 | Friday | Ziqa’ad 17, 1422 |
Els tames tricky winds to card 64
MELBOURNE, Jan 31: World number five Ernie Els tamed the tricky winds at Royal Melbourne to card nine birdies and a bogey in an eight-under-par 64 to lead the Heineken Classic by two strokes after Thursday’s first round.
Welshman Mark Pilkington shot a 66 to be outright second, one shot ahead of a pack of five players including England’s six-time major winner Nick Faldo.
England’s Barry Lane, New Zealand’s Eddie Lee and Australian pair Adam Scott and Peter Lonard joined Faldo on five-under par 67.
New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, winner of the past two Heineken Classics, was one of six players a further shot behind on 68.
The US $1million Australasian Tour event, co-sanctioned by the European Tour, was moved to Melbourne this year from its previous home at The Vines Resort in Perth, Western Australia.
Joining Campbell on 68 were England’s David Howell, Australia’s New Zealand Open winner Craig Parry, fellow Australian Peter O’Malley, France’s Marc Farry and Swede Patrik Sjoland.
Former world number one Greg Norman was one of seven players on 69 along with New Zealand’s David Smail, who had an ace on the par-three third hole.
England’s Justin Rose, winner of the European Tour’s Dunhill Championship in Johannesburg earlier this month, had an opening one-under-par 71, placing him in equal 36th place.
South African Els, the US Open champion in 1994 and 1997, said he was not surprised at his stunning round.
“No, I’ve been playing good in practice and in pro-ams,” he said. “I three-putted once today, on the 11th hole, my second hole (for a bogey).
“I hit it in play most of the time and I really putted well. It was nice to make some 20-footers and 15-footers,” Els said.
“I felt comfortable out there today. The greens were perfect there again. I just want to play as good as I can this week and see how it goes. I enjoy this course.”
Campbell said: “Obviously I’m very happy to be four-under and four shots behind Ernie. Today was a good example of what a world-class player he is.”
Faldo went to five-under after making a 40-foot putt for birdie on the par-four 17th hole.
“I made great saves on 15 and 16 (for pars) then I holed a monster at 17 (for birdie),” Faldo said.
“I hit it 40 feet past the hole and had an absolutely dead-straight putt, and knocked it in.”
First round scores:
64 Ernie Els (South Africa)
66 Mark Pilkington (Britain)
67 Nick Faldo (Britain), Barry Lane (Britain), Adam Scott, Peter Lonard, a-Eddie Lee (New Zealand)
68 Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Craig Parry, David Howell (Britain), Peter O’Malley, Marc Farry (France), Patrik Sjoland (Sweden)
69 Greg Norman, David Smail (New Zealand), Jeev Milkha Singh (India), Andrew Tschudin, Peter Fowler, Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Marcus Cain
Dimension Data Pro-Am
At the par-72 Lost City course:
First round scores:
63 Retief Goosen
67 Gareth Davies (Britain), Tjaart van der Walt, Callie Swart
68 Paddy Gribben (Ireland), Warrick Druian, Ivano Ficalbi, Sandeep Grewal (Britain)
69 Gary Birch Jnr (Britain), Mark Murless, Bruce Vaughan (U.S.), Bradley Davison, Nicholas Lawrence, Nick Price (Zimbabwe), Simon Hurd (Britain)
At the par-72 Gary Player Country Club:
66 Graeme Storm (Britain), Andrew McLardy, Scott Drummond (Britain)
67 Alan McLean (Britain), Desvonde Botes, Craig Lile
68 Ulrich van den Berg, Martin Maritz, Titch Moore, Tim Clark
69 Richard Sterne, Michael Kirk, Michael Archer (Britain).—Reuters
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