Surprise Kiwis slip into front

GOLF

The national matriach of women’s professional golf, Lynette Brooky, and improving young Kiwi amateur Emily Perry were unexpected co-leaders after yesterday’s first round of the New Zealand Open tournament.

Both shot five-under par 67s and were at the top of the leaderboard with Kym Larratt (England) and Joanna Klatten (France) at the Pegasus Golf Club.

Larratt let slip a chance to have the outright lead when she bogeyed the 18th hole after getting to six-under par with a birdie at the 17th.

It was the Kiwi pair, though, who grabbed the limelight – at least in the first round – from Lydia Ko, who sits two shots behind on 69 in a share of 13th on a jampacked leaderboard.

Perry’s was the performance of the day. She had an afternoon teeoff and in increasingly difficult conditions as the easterly wind kicked in remained bogey-free, snatching a share of the lead with the other three, with her final putt on the 18th green.

All eyes were on 14-year-old Ko, the world’s No 1 amateur, who was in the third group off the 10th tee yesterday morning and did not disappoint the few hundred spectators who followed her in benign conditions.

Perry is one of the country’s top three amateurs and has been posting good scores this summer. She puts the improvement down to playing in Australia for a month against tough opposition.

‘‘I played in the New South Wales and Victoria Opens and had a taste for the pro life.’’

Perry said the key to her round yesterday was a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth to seventh holes.

‘‘I holed good putts on all of them and kept the momentum going from there.

‘‘I’m excited to be leading. My heart’s racing a bit but I stayed calm and positive and did what I’ve been practising,’’ said Perry.

The highlight of her round was an 11-metre curling putt on the 15th hole.

‘‘I’d been putting well all day and got the speed and line right, and it was straight in the middle.’’

Brooky, in the group ahead of Ko, provided the morning fireworks.

There were only a handful of followers to watch her produce one of the rounds of the day – her first in the New Zealand Open after she missed the first three tournaments.

Brooky, who has played on the Ladies European Tour for 17 consecutive years, had six birdies and a solitary bogey in her round.

She grabbed a share of the lead with her final act of the round – a seven-metre birdie putt on the ninth hole.

‘‘I was very happy with the way I played today, although my first tee shot made me look as though I was nervous.’’

Playing the back nine first, Brooky made use of the almost perfect conditions and got through that nine, regarded as the hardest, one-under par after a birdie at the 13th.

She then struck a purple patch with birdies on one, three, four and five on the second nine, interspersed with a bogey on the second.

After she bogeyed the second, Brooky had a chat to herself.

‘‘I said ‘don’t blow it now’. It would be nice to walk off fourunder. To be five-under is great.’’