Dean Burmester and Abraham Ancer both shot seven under par 63’s to lead the Individual Event after the first round of the $25 million 54-hole LIV Golf Hong Kong at Fanling Golf Club.
The Team Event sees last week’s runners-up Stinger GC continue their fine form with a 16 under-par best three from four total, with the Crushers GC, one shot back.
On a day of low scoring over the testing Hong Kong Golf Club layout – with a freshening breeze forecast to get stronger for the weekend, there is a packed leaderboard with six players on 64, just a shot back of the two leaders.
Burmester almost didn’t play at all. He fell ill earlier in this week, and was nauseous on Tuesday, preventing him from practising.
“Seems to be every time I get ill, I seem to play OK, so that’s great news,” he said. II had a slow start and then went through a stretch there on the back nine where I think I went birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie. That eagle putt just caught the right edge perfectly and beautifully.”
The results of the round surprised Ancer.
“I didn’t think there was going to be that many low numbers, but I don’t know, I guess it’s just playing perfect,” said Ancer, who was one of seven players to card a bogey-free round.
“The greens are really good. There’s just a lot of guys that are playing really good at this time.”
Burmester started on hole 18 in the shotgun start, bogeyed hole 1 and then had six birdies and an eagle on the par five 13th to match Ancer’s seven-birdie round.
Anirban Lahiri (Crushers GC) shot 66 and Adrian Meronk (Cleeks GC) a 68.
As many as 44 players in the 54-player field shot par or better – with so much still to play for over the final two rounds.
Joaquin Niemann, who won the Jeddah tournament in Saudi Arabia last week for his second LIV victory in three starts, shot 67, as did Jon Rahm.
Anthony Kim, who is making his second straight start after a 12-year layoff and finished 33 shots behind Niemann last week in Saudi Arabia, shot 76.
The Hong Kong tournament is the second of three LIV Golf events that are part of the Asian swing, with the third in early May in Singapore.
The week before Singapore, the LIV series will be in the Pacific region with a second
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First Round Scores
Individual (6,710 Yards, Par 70).
Burmester 63.
Ancer 63.
Jones 64.
Kaymer 64.
Oosthuizen 64.
Chacarra 64.
Howell III 64.
Varner III 64.
Team
Stinger GC -16.
Crushers GC -15.
Cleeks GC -12.
Fireballs GC -12.
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