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Raajiv Tripathi
DOHA
Triple European Tour winner Gregory Havret and English players Eddie Pepperell and Aaron Rai carded an opening day 65 to sit at the top of the 21st Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Golf Tournament on Thursday.
At the Doha Golf Club, the early benign conditions, mixed with a light drizzle in the afternoon, helped the trio gain a shot advantage over Italian Edoardo, German Marcel Schneider, Englishman Oliver Fisher and Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, the 2009 champion.
A pack of seven players, including Qatar Open professional category qualifier Joshua White from England, lies two strokes off the leaders. Late starters American Sean Crocker and Belgian Thomas Detry also put in some impressive golf during the overcast skies, to force their way into the tied eighth.
A huge bunch of 24 players was sharing the 15th spot with three under 68. Defending champion Jeunghun Wang, double winner Paul Lawrie, who is also one of the two Major champions in the field, Robert Karlsson and Chris Wood are placed in the chasing pack and would surely up their ante on the second day.
European Tour leader Shubhankar Sharma suffered a double bogey (lost ball) on the 15th hole despite a hot start with two birdies in a row and found himself among 19 players, who are one stroke further down.
"I think it is not a bad round at all. I was not driving the ball well off the tee and had a lost ball on the 15th hole. My drive went to the right, hit the rocks and I could not find the ball," said the Indian, who has set the Tour alight with two titles so far.
"After that I played well. My driving could have been better. Considering everything, I think it was a good round. The conditions were good and the key here is that you have to hit the fairways, which are very narrow. If you don't, there are not many opportunities then.
"The minus three card on the first day is not a bad round. I need to work on my hitting tomorrow so that I can catch up with the others," debutant Sharma added.
Havret, whose last of the three wins on the Tour came in the 2008 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleaneagles, had a bogey-free round. He had a strong start, saving four shots off the first seven holes. The Frenchman then added three more to round off the day on top.
"I was putting well and that's definitely the key. Last week I didn't play much different and I missed the cut by a lot," he said about the Oman event.
"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," he added.
Both Pepperell and Rai are looking for the their breakthrough wins on the Tour, though the former has come quite close to securing it in past few years.
Pepperell, working with a new coach, translated the improvement on the course well.
Fresh from making two cuts in the Maybank Championship and the Oman Open, he sank five birdies in the first 11 holes. Despite dropping a shot off the 13th, he made three gains in next six holes to get a confidence-boosting score first time in four months he carded an opening day seven under par since the 2017 Italian Open.
"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 in my boxers 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," the Englishman added.
Rai, who had three wins on the Challenge Tour last season before getting an entry to the European Tour, had a good bogey-free round. After gaining two shots, he closed out the front nine with an eagle. Then he added another three shots to rise to the top.
"I drove it well and then gave myself a lot of opportunities with the approach play, didn't miss too many greens," he said.
Two former champions Thomas Bjorn, who is also the European Ryder Cup captain, and Darren Fichardt look in danger of missing the cut. So does the former Major winner Darren Clarke. The 2011 winner Bjorn shot three over par, while Clarke had further worse round and Fichardt, the 2003 champion, managed one over par 73.
Julian Suri, the highest world-ranked player in the field at 70, was also struggling and finished the opening day at two over par.
Qatar Open winner and amateur qualifier Pakistani Ahmed Baig shot 74, Shergo al Kaabi (Jordan) carded 73, Ahmed Marjan (Morocco) also went two over par. Qatari amateurs Ali Saleh al Kaabi and Ali al Shahrani shot 76 and 78, respectively, while the former was able to drain an eagle on the 16th hole.
The second round tees off on Friday morning at 6.30 am with the last starters teeing off at 12.30 pm with play expected to finish at around 5 pm.
Scores
T1 PEPPERELL, Eddie ENG -7
T1 HAVRET, Grégory FRA -7
T1 RAI, Aaron ENG -7
T4 FISHER, Oliver ENG -6
T4 MOLINARI, Edoardo ITA -6
T4 SCHNEIDER, Marcel GER -6
T8 DETRY, Thomas BEL -5
T8 CROCKER, Sean USA -5
T8 GAGLI, Lorenzo ITA -5.
