Forrest is pick of the Scots in Singapore as Lowry vows to keep emotions in check
Scotland’s Grant Forrest holed seven birdies as he carded a 66 to sit two shots off the lead after the first day’s play at the Porsche Singapore Classic.
Forrest is joined by two other Scots at the top end of the leaderboard, with Ewen Ferguson and Calum Hill one shot behind him after carding 67s. Richie Ramsay is tied 31st on three under par, with Stephen Gallacher and David Law on one under. On a day of low scoring, it was one to forget for Scott Jamieson, who signed off on a 75 and faces a battle to make the cut.
Irishman Shane Lowry admitted he needs to control his emotions better after opening with a 69. Lowry made a flying start with three birdies in his first four holes at Laguna National but covered the next ten in two over par before picking up shots on the 15th and 18th.
That left the former Open champion five shots off the lead shared by Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, England’s Jordan Smith and Malaysia’s Gavin Green as he bids to secure a seventh DP World Tour title.
“I got off to a great start today and I guess I just thought it was going to be easy and it kind of me bit me back in the middle of the round, but I fought well and finished well and I’m pretty happy with that,” Lowry said. “I actually struggled on the greens today, the grain on the greens and it was quite windy and hard to putt so hopefully I can get out tomorrow and manage to hole a few putts.”
Lowry came close to making a hole-in-one on the fourth before tapping in for a birdie and added: “That was to go three under after four and, like I said, I felt like golf was easy and everything was going to be easy today.
“I need to be a bit more in control of my emotions tomorrow and just kind of play one hole at a time. 69 feels way better than 70, even though it’s not that much better. It’s nice to shoot three under because going out this morning you’re standing on the first tee eight behind the leader you know there’s a lot of good scores out there. When you’re not doing it you start to get frustrated but I stuck with it and three under’s okay.”