Justin Rose is the leader of the pack trying to chase down Rory McIlroy at the top of the Race to Dubai standings after an opening five-under 67 at the BMW Masters in Shanghai yesterday.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia leads the US$7 million event after an eight-under first round of 64, but Danny Willett, just 74,213 points behind McIlroy at the penultimate event of the European Tour season, had a disappointing even-par 72.
“I played OK today,” said Rose, who is seeking a double on Chinese soil having won in his last outing at the Hong Kong Open last month. “I was only one-under through 11, though. I could see a lot of the other guys were going low today and I tried to urge myself to sort of get it to three or four-under for the round, and actually beat my own expectations and finished five-under. Very happy with how I played the last seven or eight holes and it was a good day’s work in the end.”
Photo: Reuters
McIlroy is sitting out the BMW Masters, leaving him in a precarious position at the top of the Race to Dubai standings as challengers close in behind him.
The world No. 3 is returning for next week’s season finale, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, as he bids to be crowned European No. 1 for the second year running.
Willett carded a best-of-the-week 62 on Sunday to finish third in the WGC-HSBC Champions across Shanghai at the Sheshan International Golf Club, but he could not reproduce that form yesterday.
“It was a strange one last week, the game’s not felt great,” said the English world No. 22, who needs to finish 28th or better to overtake McIlroy, but was lying tied 48th after the first round. “Just couldn’t quite get things going today. Drove it well. Didn’t hit it close enough to make anything. Just a very stale day.”
World No. 11 Garcia carded nine birdies and a single bogey on his debut at Lake Malaren to lead by one stroke from South Korea’s An Byeong-hun and France’s Victor Dubuisson, who is in fine form after winning the Turkish Airlines Open last month.
“Conditions were quite good, not much wind,” Garcia said. “A little bit of a drizzle, but other than that it was good. I drove the ball very well and that gave me a lot of opportunities to hit some good iron shots.”
Apart from Rose and Willett, none of the other three players who can knock McIlroy off his perch with a win this week made a significant move on a windless day, with greens softened by rain that made for good scoring conditions, with 38 of the 78-man field breaking par.
Shane Lowry of Ireland, third in the Race to Dubai, had a two-under 70 for a share of 24th place, as did South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen, who is fourth in the standings. Each of them need to finish second at least to overtake McIlroy.
Oosthuizen’s fellow South African Branden Grace, who is sixth and needs a win this week to move ahead of McIlroy, was one shot worse on 71.
Tied for fourth spot on six-under were Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard, runner-up to Rose in Hong Kong last month, and England’s Ross Fisher, who came second in Shanghai last year after losing a playoff to Germany’s Marcel Siem.
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