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Poulter leads after opening
day 64
England's Ian Poulter has
cashed in on near-perfect conditions at the Montecastillo Golf Club to take the
first-round lead in the Volvo Masters with a blemish-free round of 64.
The Englishman, fresh from finishing third at last week's Italian Open, reeled
off six birdies and an eagle-three at the 16th to move one shot ahead of Australia's
Peter Lonard, who had set the early pace with a 65.
Irishman Paul McGinley produced
a flawless 66, after finishing eagle-par-birdie, while his compatriot Padraig
Harrington and Australia's Adam Scott shared fourth place on 67.
European number one Retief
Goosen also kept in touch with the lead and, despite carding two sixes, the South
African ended the day just four strokes off the pace on 68 in the final event
of the season.
A brilliant birdie-birdie-eagle
start in bright sunshine had moved the U.S. Open champion to four-under-par after
just three holes.
Although he hit his drive
out of bounds at the fifth to run up a double-bogey six and found water at the
par-five 16th to drop another shot, he managed to birdie six, eight and 12 to
stay in contention for his fourth European title of the year.
Goosen secured the 2001
European order of merit crown two weeks ago after his playoff victory in the Madrid
Open, and he was officially presented with the trophy after his opening round
at Montecastillo on Thursday.
"I started great today,
then I struggled with my swing for the rest of the round," Goosen said.
"I had a few birdie
chances, on 13 and 14, but did not take them. But it's a good opening score that
gives me a good chance for the rest of the week. Hopefully, I can go low tomorrow
and move up the leaderboard."
Poulter, who won the 2001
European rookie of the year award, completed loops of 33 and 31 to return his
lowest first-round score on the European Tour.
Rifling his approaches into
the hard Montecastillo greens with unerring accuracy, he holed birdie putts from
just four feet at the seventh and from five feet at the short 11th.
He set up his eagle at the
517-yard 16th with a good drive down the middle followed by a seven-iron approach
to 15 feet, and then birdied the 17th from 20 feet to get to eight-under for the
day.
"I hit it nice on the
range and it felt great today after last week where I felt I didn't putt as well
as I should have done," said Poulter, who lies 21st on the European money
list with only this week's event remaining.
"Coming into the week,
I've worked hard on the same stuff and everything's gone quite nicely. All in
all, it was a solid round of golf today but I could have got a few more out there."
Lonard, who has won twice
on his home Australasian Tour, reeled off six birdies in his first 12 holes. Although
he faltered slightly when he bogeyed the par-four 15, he bounced back immediately
with a superb eagle at the 517-yard 16th.
"That eagle was a nice
finish to the day, especially after dropping a shot at the hole before after a
poor drive," said the Australian, whose best result in Europe was joint second
at the 1997 Johnnie Walker Classic and at the 1999 Heineken Classic.
"It's definitely my
best start in Europe this year. Usually, I'm a pretty slow starter and my putting
hasn't been good enough to go low early.
"In fact, that was
as good a putting round as I've had for a long time. I've never putted as well
here as I have in Australia."
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