Lee Westwood lies just two shots behind first-round leader Brett Rumford after an impressive opening 66 at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth.
Defending champion Rumford raced to the turn in 29 en route to an opening 64 in the event at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, where the first three rounds are played as a regular strokeplay event before the field is reduced to 24 players on Sunday, with a six-hole matchplay format determining the winner.
Ireland’s lone competitor – Gavin Moynihan – sits well off the lead after an opening round of 73, one over par. After securing his European Tour card at qualifying school last November, Moynihan has struggled to get many starts and, on Thursday, was left to rue a double bogey at the 10th which put a dent in his score. Two bogeys and three birdies and top of that leaves him nine shots off the lead.
Former world number one Westwood, who has not won an event since securing a third Indonesian Masters in April 2015, started on the back nine and picked up birdies at the 11th and 12th.
A chip-in eagle on the 15th briefly saw him keep pace with home favourite Rumford, who mixed 10 birdies with two bogeys to reach eight under.
The 44 year old Westwood added further gains on the second, third and sixth to lie second on six under par, good enough for a share of second alongside Australia’s James Nitties.
Westwood has slipped to 73rd in the world as a result of his winless streak, but after missing the cut in his first two events of 2018, carded a 62 as he finished 11th in Malaysia last week.
“The swing’s just getting better all the time,” Westwood told europeantour.com.
“I played very nicely, very solidly. Hit a lot of good shots, drove the ball well, putted nicely as well without anything really going in for me. I chipped in on 15 for eagle but other than that, everything was pretty close range.
“There was a bit of breeze up but if you hit the ball well, then it’s very scoreable. The golf course is in great condition. If you start putts on line, they tend to go in.
“It was nice to shoot 66. I don’t think this is a tournament where you want to be playing catch-up, really. You want to get yourself in the mix and try and cruise through the second and third days and get into that top 24.”
Two more Australians, Wade Ormsby and Jason Scrivener, were alongside France’s Sebastien Gros, Japan’s Daisuke Kataoka, Malaysian Nicholas Fung, New Zealand’s Gareth Paddison, Korea’s Yikeun Chang and Thai pair Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Prom Meesawat on five under.
Collated first round scores in the European Tour ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, Lake Karrinyup CC, Perth, Australia, (Aus unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
64 Brett Rumford
66 James Nitties, Lee Westwood (Eng)
67 Jason Scrivener, Prom Meesawat (Tha), Nicholas Fung (Mal), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Sebastien Gros (Fra), Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), Wade Ormsby, Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn)
68 Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Lucas Herbert, Jens Fahrbring (Swe), Seung-su Han (USA), Sam Horsfield (Eng), David Lipsky (USA), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Marcus Fraser
69 Charlie Ford (Eng), Daniel Fox, Grant Forrest (Sco), Stephen Leaney, Mark Brown (Nzl), Min Woo Lee (a), Richard Green, Austin Connelly (Can), Jarryd Felton, Taylor MacDonald, Brad Kennedy, Dimitrios Papadatos
70 Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), Ryan Fox (Nzl), Natipong Srithong (Tha), Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha), Chase Koepka (USA), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Ryan Evans (Eng), Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn), Sean Crocker (USA), Matthew Griffin
71 Terry Pilkadaris, Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Michael Hendry (Nzl), Bradley Neil (Sco), Johan Edfors (Swe), Aaron Rai (Eng), Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha), Darren Beck, Matthew Nixon (Eng), Anthony Quayle, Andrew Dodt, Christopher Mivis (Bel), Pep Angles (Spa), Steven Jeffress, Matthias Schwab (Aut), Deyen Lawson, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha), Tom Murray (Eng), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), David Bransdon, Mark Foster (Eng), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger), Poom Saksansin (Tha), Jens Dantorp (Swe)
72 Steven Brown (Eng), Javier Colomo (Spa), Callan O’Reilly, Damien Jordan, Laurie Canter (Eng), Matthew Guyatt, Johannes Veerman (USA), Aron Price, Ben Eccles, Jordan Zunic, Rattanon Wannasrichan (Tha), Scott Fernandez (Spa), Nick Cullen, Peter Lonard, Todd Sinnott, Robert Allenby, Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Arnond Vongvanij (Tha), Jake McLeod, Joel Girrbach (Sui)
73 Matthew Millar, Nico Geyger (Chi), Andrew Johnston (Eng), Tom Lewis (Eng), Adrien Saddier (Fra), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Jarin Todd (USA), Adam Bland, Brett Coletta, Ben Campbell (Nzl), Rak Cho (Kor), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Jack Wilson, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Peter Wilson, Cory Crawford, Adam Blyth, Dale Brandt-Richards, Pontus Widegren (Swe), Richard McEvoy (Eng), Gary Stal (Fra), Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind), Gavin Moynihan (Irl), James Marchesani (USA), Daniel Nisbet, Andrea Pavan (Ita), Scott Vincent (Zim), Danthai Boonma (Tha)
74 Marcus Armitage (Eng), Jake Higginbottom, Garrick Porteous (Eng), Berry Henson (USA), Matthew Baldwin (Eng), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Josh Geary (Nzl), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Paul Peterson (USA), Jason Norris, Josh Younger, Duncan Stewart (Sco), Victor Perez (Fra), Peter Fowler
75 Ben Evans (Eng), Aaron Townsend, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Sebastian Heisele (Ger), Adrian Meronk (Pl), Nathan Kimsey (Eng), Simon Hawkes, Jonathan Thomson (Eng), Daniel Pearce (Nzl), Alexander Knappe (Ger)
76 Matthew Stieger, Connor Syme (Sco), Danny Willett (Eng), Nick O’Hern, Peter O’Malley
77 Ben Leong (Mal), David Smail (Nzl), Marcel Schneider (Ger)
79 James Heath (Eng), Michael Long (Nzl), Nathan Holman, Simon Yates (Sco), Brett Rankin
80 Siddikur Rahman (Ban), Travis Smyth
81 Yan-wei Liu (Chn)
