South African journeyman Hennie Otto blasted a stunning nine-under 63 to lead the Volvo China Open after the first round yesterday.
Starting in the first group on the 10th tee at the Topwin Golf and Country Club in Beijing, the world No. 392 was only three-under halfway through his round.
However, he shot two birdies in his first three holes on the front nine and an eagle at the eighth saw him back in just 30 strokes.
Photo: AFP
Otto, who is to turn 40 years old in June, turned professional in 1998, but had to wait a decade for the first of only three European tour wins, the 2008 Italian Open.
“I played really well today,” he said in comments posted on the organizers’ Web site. “You have to hit it in the right places and that is the thing I did today.”
“I have always got a good frame of mind every week, but it is just my putting lets me down and today it came through,” he added.
Otto was two strokes ahead of Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, who won the French Open last year, with four players tied one shot further back: Finland’s Roope Kakko, Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti, Peter Hanson of Sweden and Frenchman Gregory Bourdy.
Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg had a hole-in-one with a seven-iron at the 201-yard 16th hole, winning a Volvo XC90 car for his effort.
“The factory is 30 minutes from where I live, so it is pretty cool,” he said. “I have won a Swedish car in China.”
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