Grégory Havret, Eddie Pepperell and Aaron Rai found their form to lead the way at the conclusion of day one of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
The trio had enjoyed an indifferent start to the 2018 season, with nine missed cuts from 17 combined appearances, but made hay during the calmer morning conditions at Doha Golf Club as opening rounds of 65 moved them to seven under, one shot clear of Italian Edoardo Molinari, Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, German Marcel Schneider and England’s Oliver Fisher.
Pepperell missed his first two cuts of the season but made the weekend in Malaysia and Oman and – with a little help from a new coach – was glad to be making further progress.
“I’ve made some changes this week with personnel so I’ve been working on a couple of new things and I surprised myself out there with how well I managed to trust it,” he said. “It’s been pretty nice on the range, although yesterday it was a bit of a grind, a bit of a struggle in the afternoon so I was in my room doing some drills last night.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend but even more so moving forward to the rest of the season. I want to push forward and I just feel like my game has been hitting ceilings a bit. I want to break through that.”
Flushed pitch. Easy putt.@PepperellEddie moves to 7 under par. pic.twitter.com/3dF16vd9zU
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 22, 2018
Havret also has a 50 per cent success-rate from six cuts so far this season, and the Frenchman had no doubt where the improvement had come from after a bogey-free effort.
“I was putting well and that’s definitely the key,” he said. “Last week I didn’t play much different and I missed the cut by a lot.
“As soon as you feel your putting is not able to compensate for your mistakes you put more pressure on your driving and your iron shots and then it can be a disaster as you try things that you normally don’t. It’s all part of the process, if you putt well, you feel comfortable.”
Rai made the jump to the European Tour via three wins on the Challenge Tour last year and a 65 represented his best round since making the move.
“I drove it well and then gave myself a lot of opportunities with the approach play and didn’t miss too many greens,” he said. “Gameplan-wise, you have to be doing something right and playing some good golf to shoot a 65 so I’ll just continue in the same vein and try not to change too much.”
Pepperell made birdies on the tenth, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th with a single blemish on the 13th to share the lead at the turn and he made another gain on the second to get to five under. Havret got there in more dramatic style, making five birdies in six holes from the sixth.
The duo then went toe-to-toe, with Pepperell putting an approach on the fifth to six feet and Havret holing from eight feet after an excellent tee-shot on the par three 13th.
Smart approaches to the seventh and 16th respectively had the duo in the clubhouse where they were joined by Rai after a big finish. The Englishman had birdies on the first, sixth, ninth, 12th and 16th before he made an eagle on the par five last.
Molinari also finished in style to complete a run of seven birdies in ten holes. After eight pars, the Trophée Hassan II champion made four birdies in a row from the ninth and added another on the 14th. A dropped shot followed on the 15th but he birdied the 16th before chipping in at the last for a closing gain.
When the flag is your friend… pic.twitter.com/8tpTY8OwgS
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 23, 2018
Schneider was bogey-free in his round, making gains on the second, sixth, tenth, 12th, 14th and 16th. Quiros was another player not to have a blemish on his card with birdies on the first, third, seventh, tenth, 14th and last.
The morning starters arguably got the best of the conditions with both the greens and the wind, which picked up slightly during the afternoon. Fisher was the best of the afternoon starters, playing the front nine in 31 after starting on the tenth.
Defending champion Jeunghun Wang of Korea shot a four under par score of 68 highlighted by an eagle on 307 yard par four 16th hole. The leader of the 2018 Order of Merit Rankings, Indian Shubhankar Sharma, shot a comfortable three under par 69 while the leading player on the Official World Golf Ranking at number 70, American Julian Suri, shot a 74.
Other notable scores with local relevance came from the MENA Golf Tour player Josh White (England), who gained entry to the tournament by winning the Qatar Open, as he shot an impressive 5 under par 67, Ahmed Baig (Pakistan), winner of the Amateur Division at the Qatar Open, shot 74, Shergo Al Kaabi (Jordan) shot 73, Ahmed Marjan (Morocco) shot 74 while Qatari amateurs Ali Saleh Al Kaabi and Ali Al Shahrani shot 76 and 78 respectively.
The second round tees off this morning (Friday) with the first tee time of 6.30 am with the last starters teeing off at 12.30 pm with play expected to finish at around 5 pm.
Entrance to the 2018 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters is free with families encouraged to attend with plenty of Kids Zone activities in the Tournament Village.