Ras Al Khaimah Championship - Day one digest

Everything you need to know from round one at Al Hamra Golf Club.

Marcus Armitage shot a stunning 63 to open up a big lead while Ewen Ferguson pulled off an impressive par save on day one of the 2025 Ras Al Khaimah Championship.

Here is everything you need to know from round one at Al Hamra Golf Club.

Armitage goes low

Early starter Armitage stormed to the top of the leaderboard on Thursday, producing a brilliant burst of scoring around the turn on his way to a nine-under-par 63. Starting from the tenth tee, the Englishman made a total of 11 birdies - including five in a row at the 16th, 17th, 18th, first and second - and two bogeys to sit four shots clear of his nearest challengers Jack Senior, Alexander Björk and Ivan Cantero after 18 holes. He said: "It's been my best score in quite a few years so I'm really pleased with it. It just shows that a bit of time off, rest the mind and come back fresh and apply yourself and I've still got the game. The putter was on fire. I don't even know how many putts I had but everything I looked at I was thinking about holing. I was just in the zone if that's what you want to call it."

Ferguson's fabulous par save

After keeping the bogeys off his card on the front side, Scotland's Ferguson made a sticky start to the back nine as his tee-shot at the tenth finished up in the water. But he produced a sensational recovery shot before tapping in his par putt to walk away with a hard-earned four.

Smith almost makes ace

Jordan Smith couldn't have gone much closer to holing his tee-shot at the par-three seventh, missing out on a hole-in-one by less than a foot. His consolation prize was a tap-in birdie.

Senior keeps his card clean

Jack Senior posted the lowest round of the afternoon, carding five birdies and no bogeys to become the only player of the day to finish with a clean card. The Englishman sits in a tie for second on five under.

Norris drains monster putt

Shaun Norris found himself more than 50 feet away from the cup as he stood over his birdie putt at the sixth. But he sent his ball from the fringe all the way in for a brilliant bonus birdie.