Three share lead at Turkish Airlines Open Golf tournament
The weather … awesome. The venue – located between the sublime mediterranean and the imposing taurus mountains … breath-taking. Yes, we are talking of the Turkish Airlines Open, the six of eight Rolex Series Open tournaments on the European Tour, which is being held at the magnificent and scenic Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort in Belek, Antalya.
And, at the end of the first round of the Championship on Thursday under sublime and sunny conditions, three players — Nicolas Colsaerts, Joost Luiten and Haydn Porteous — shared the lead.
Colsaerts shot an eagle on 12 followed by a birdie. Things just fell into place for the Belgian with his longest birdie putt being 31 feet.
“I was in control of what I was doing all day,” said Colsaerts. “The greens are in impeccable condition, so everything kind of just clicked.”
“Having said that I don’t think it’s a golf course you can be very aggressive off the tee, actually. You have to play the design. 18 is the perfect example. So it’s not a golf course that you can just go out and actually rip apart,” the 34-year-old added.
The par 71 course measures 7,186 yards from the championship tees and is set on undulating sand hills and holes which run through a pine forest. With a bird- ie on the 16th from off the green, Dutchman Luiten shot a bogeyfree 64 and put himself in a tie for the lead at 7-under, while South Africa’s Porteous recorded his equal-lowest European Tour score — a bogey-free display of seven birdies matched a 64 he posted during May’s Rocco Forte Open in Sicily. “I needed a really big start to put myself on the right foot heading into these next couple of weeks to get me into DP World,” Porteous said.
“So, to shoot a bogey-free 64 is exactly what I was looking for.”
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Argentina’s Andres Romero share fourth place with six-underpar rounds of 65.
It was not such a good day, however, for Race to Dubai champion and Rio Olympics silver medallist Henrik Stenson with a 2-over par 73. He also struck a tree and ended up breaking his club.
Tommy Fleetwood leads the Race to Dubai standings but he didn’t have his A- Game either but came very close to an eagle to a 13th. In the end he rounded in 71, that’s level par, seven shots off the lead.
Playing with Stenson and Fleetwood on Thursday was Rio Olympics gold medallist Justin Rose who made a hole-in- one at the 14th and in the end signed off with a 69, 2 under par, the same as defending champion Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark.
If Olesen successfully defends his title here he would be the first person to do so in the tournament’s history. This would also be his fourth consecutive European Tour season with a victory.
With three events remaining until the winner of the 2017 Race to Dubai is crowned, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood currently leads the rankings from Spaniard Sergio Garcia by 865,769 points.