Englishman Ben Jones took full advantage of benign conditions to set himself up with a six-under 66 and a one-stroke advantage after the first round of the Toyota Tour Championship at the Kota Permai Golf & Country Club.
The field was congested at the top and sharing second position were Daeng Rahman of Malaysia, Thammasack Bouahom of Lao, Tanapat Pichaikool of Thailand and Indonesia’s Rory Hie. Six more players were bunched in joint sixth at four-under 68 including Malaysians Edven Ying and Kim Leun Kwang.
The Toyota Tour Championship which is the final leg of the Malaysian circuit is also the penultimate stop on the Asian Development Tour.
Jones started his round on the back nine and finished at two-under 34. He had a quick eagle-birdie start on the front nine and was five-under after 12 holes. He added two more birdies on seven and eight but bogeyed the ninth for his 66.
“I felt comfortable, the swing felt good,” said Jones whose best finish this season was tied for 15th in Macau. “When you’re playing a good golf course and the conditions are great, then yeah, you know that if you make good shots you’ve got the opportunity to score low.”
Jones felt his patience was key to playing well today. “I started well with two birdies but then there was a frustrating seven-hole stretch of hitting good shots and not converting the birdies. I guess the eagle was a little reward for my patience. I’ll play with the same attitude tomorrow … hit as many fairways and greens as possible and stay patient.”
In what was favourable scoring conditions on the Ross Watson-designed layout, 58 players played par or better and the cut after tomorrow’s round looks likely to be either one or two under.
Malaysia’s Daeng Rahman is placed joint second after round 1
Most of the field found the greens fast and firm, including Daeng who three putted the par 4 fifth and submitted a scorecard that included six birdies. “Overall I was hitting it well today and didn’t make mistakes, other than that three-putt I made. I was a bit cautious on the greens and my objective was to try and hit as many fairways and possible.”
ADT Order of Merit leader Rahil Ganjee started off well on the first nine with birdies on the 2nd and 8th holes. But he lost the script on the back nine, his scorecard dogged by four bogeys and a double on the finishing par 5 18th for a four-over 76.
Malaysia’s leading golfer Gavin Green, back from Abu Dhabi after completing his season on the DP World Tour, started off with nine consecutive pars on the back nine. After crossing over he scored his first birdie of the day on the reachable par 5 first, then succumbed to bogeys on 5 and 6. A welcomed eagle on 7 put him one-under until a bad shot on the 9th resulted in a triple bogey.
Said Green: “I started off okay but didn’t finish very well. Finished quite badly actually. Yeah, just a bit of an unlucky break and I hit a bad shot at the last. I’ve got to start making some putts because I missed a lot today. I need a low one tomorrow to even make the cut, so we’ll see.”
Leading Rd 1 scores
66 Ben Jones
67 Daeng Rahman, Thammasack Buoahom, Tanapat Pichaikool, Rory Hie
68 Edven Ying, Kim Leun Kwang, Pukhraj Singh Gill, Filip Lundell, Waris Munthorn, Tirawat Kaewsinbandit
69 Wan Hasnul Danial, Amir Nazrin, Fakhrul Akmal, Ayoub Lguirati, Kosuke Hamamoto, Liu, Yung-Hua, Minhyeok Yang, Nirun Sae-ueng, Amarin Kraivixien, Varanyu Rattaphiboonkij
