LUITEN FINDS HIS FORM ON THE ALGARVE
HOLLAND’S Joost Luiten cast aside the disappointment of an early exit in defence of his KLM Open title to claim a share of the lead after day one of the Portugal Masters. Luiten carded seven birdies in a bogeyfree 64 in Vilamoura which was matched by South Africa’s George Coetzee, with England’s Callum Shinkwin part of a fivestrong group on six under par. ‘It was a tough week last week for me, missing the cut by one, but the good thing about golf is there’s always next week,’ said five-time European Tour winner Luiten. ‘I knew my game wasn’t far off and it’s good that today showed I’m getting in the right shape. I struggled a little bit with my old driver so I got a new driver with a slightly bigger head and lower ball flight, more forgiving in the wind hopefully, and that really helped me.’ In contrast to Luiten, Coetzee finished joint third in Holland and admitted thoughts of the European Tour’s first 59 crossed his mind after carding six birdies in his first eight holes at a low-scoring venue. ‘I read an article yesterday about the “59 watch” and after eight holes I was thinking if I birdie the next and the next and the next, but I guess I shot myself in the foot a little bit with that,’ joked Coetzee. ‘You get a feeling if you can get off to a hot start you could maybe have a go at it but in the end I wasn’t even close. Defending champion Padraig Harrington carded a bogey-free 67 matched by England’s Jack Singh Brar in his first event as a professional. England’s Scott Gregory and Scotland’s Connor Syme also enjoyed successful starts to life in the paid ranks with opening rounds of 68, although Alfie Plant — who was the leading amateur in the Open at Birkdale — struggled to a three-over-par 74.
l KYLE STANLEY leads the way after the first round of the season-ending Tour Championship by two strokes from fellow Americans Webb Simpson, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka and England’s Paul Casey. Although setting the pace on six under after a fine round of 64, victory for Stanley in Georgia would not be enough to land the £8.5million prize of winning the FedEx Cup play-offs. Open champion Jordan Spieth remains in pole position to land the biggest cheque in golf after carding an opening 67 to sit on three under in Atlanta.