Paisley and Sharma impressing in Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Two of the European Tour’s hottest players brought their best games to their first World Golf Championship.
South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen — a world-class golfer for the better part of a decade — drilled a long iron to four feet from the par-5 15th hole, setting up an eagle putt, and had birdies on two of the short par 4s at Chapultepec Golf Club on Thursday in the Mexico Championship. He shot a 7-under-par 64 and had a one-stroke lead over three players.
Two of them were golfers unfamiliar to the world stage, though they sure didn’t play like it.
Shubhankar Sharma, a 21-year-old from India who is the only two-time winner on the European Tour this season, holed an eagle chip after making the turn and finished with a wedge shot to set up a two-foot birdie putt.
“I was very nervous in the morning, but very happy with the way I put it all together,” Sharma said.
England’s Chris Paisley, who followed his victory in the South African Open with a pair of top-five finishes against strong fields in the Middle East, had his name atop the leaderboard for most of the warm afternoon until he came up short of the 16th and made his lone bogey.
“After the win in SA, I didn’t want to just be happy with winning. I wanted to kind of press on, and that’s what I did,” Paisley said. “I’m taking that attitude into the rounds as well. If you get defensive or you back off at all against players like you’ve got this week, then you’ve got no chance of winning.”
Xander Schauffele was at 65 as well, while Rafael Cabrera Bello and Kiradech Aphibarnrat were at 66.
This World Golf Championship lived up to its name for at least one day. The top six on the leaderboard came from South Africa, England, India, Spain and Thailand. The lone American, Schauffele, has a German father with French heritage and a mother who was born in Taiwan and raised in Japan.
Song up by 2 strokes
SINGAPORE — Jennifer Song opened with a 7-under 65 and led by two strokes after the first round of the Women’s World Championship on Thursday.
The 28-year-old American, who is still chasing her first LPGA Tour win eight years after turning pro, reeled off seven birdies at Sentosa Golf Club in a round suspended because of lighting for two hours.
Ji Eun-Hee and Michelle Wie were tied for second; nine golfers were another stroke back.
Slim lead in Tshwane
PRETORIA, South Africa — Louis de Jager birdied three of his last four holes at Pretoria Country Club for an opening 7-under 64, and he held a one-stroke lead over Felipe Aguilar, Thomas Aiken and Julian Suri in the Tshwane Open.
De Jager is winless on the European Tour, but his best result came at the 2013 edition of this event as he tied for third.
Shaun Norris and Combrinck Smit were tied for fifth at 66, and there was a crowd at 67.