Ian Poulter made good on his goal to upstage fellow Briton Luke Donald at the Australian Masters, shooting a sparkling six-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead after the first round yesterday.
Both players soaked up the sunshine in sublime conditions at Melbourne’s Victoria Golf Club, but it was the smartly dressed Poulter turning the most heads as he notched seven birdies to edge early pace-setter Ashley Hall of Australia.
World No. 1 Donald rolled in only two birdies and struggled to build momentum in his first professional tournament in Australia, but displayed enough of his trademark control to finish with a blemish-free 69, four strokes behind.
Photo: Reuters
Resplendent in a pair of tartan trousers and a violet sweater, Poulter delighted in the short sandbelt course that places a premium on tactics and smart iron-play.
“It’s always nice to go out and play well after playing a golf course that you have never seen before until the day before,” the flamboyant 35-year-old said. “I missed a couple of greens in the wrong spots, but managed to make a couple of great up-and-downs.”
“It’s refreshing because a number of the courses we play week in week out, it just seems like you are taking the driver head-cover off on every single par-four or par-five, and the odd par-three. So it’s nice not to do that,” he added.
Poulter, on a mission in Melbourne to lift his 28th ranking at the end of an inconsistent year, three-putted for his lone bogey on the par-four 11th, his second hole, but clicked into gear with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-four 15th.
That sparked a run of five birdies in six holes, highlighted by a sublime bunker shot on the par-four first that cleared another sand-trap before settling within two feet of the pin.
Donald, seeking tips from the Melbourne sandbelt courses for his golf architecture ambitions, struggled on the greens and rued his failure to make hay while the sun shone.
“Obviously a perfect day for scoring. I hit it quite well on the back nine, my front nine, just made no putts,” said the Englishman, who finishes the season as the first player to win both the US and European tour money crowns in the same year.
Hall, a burly 28-year-old with only two minor tournament wins in the local tour to his credit, briefly threatened to steal both the Britons’ thunder with a barnstorming 29 on his first nine holes, but stumbled with a bogey and a double-bogey in his last five.
Holder Stuart Appleby shrugged off a twinge in his lower back to card a one-under 70, while former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy was a further shot adrift on 71.
Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, the youngest winner on the European Tour, is 11 off the pace after struggling to a 76.
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