Joost Luiten’s hopes of ending his wait for a first European Tour title were given a significant boost as an eight under par 63 gave the Dutchman the clubhouse lead during the first round of the Iskandar Johor Open.
The 25 year old has had 15 top ten European Tour finishes - six of them this season - but a maiden title has so far proved elusive.
But a bogey-free round containing eight birdies, four of them in a row from the 15th, put him a shot clear of defending champion Padraig Harrington, Frenchman Grégory Bourdy and Australian Marcus Fraser.
“On this course, you can really attack the pins, especially as you've got a lot of wedges in your hand,” he said.
“I found most of the fairways off the tee, and that put me in a great position to make some birdies.
“I think a few guys will go very low this week, depending on the weather. I think a 61 or 62 is possible if you get your putter going.
“If you look at previous years, the winning score has been around minus 20 or so, and K J Choi won with minus 20 after three rounds. So that tells you what's possible on this course.”
Three-time Major winner Harrington eagled his fourth hole of the day - the par five 13th - and picked up six further birdies with a solitary bogey to share second with Bourdy and Fraser, both of whom produced bogey-free rounds.
Harrington said: “It’s always nice when you come back to defend a title to put in a good showing. It’s great to be up near the top of the leaderboard, even though it’s early days, and it’s even nicer to be playing well. So it’s a case of so far, so good.
“I’d given myself a few chances early on, but didn’t hole the putts. So in the back of your mind you start to think that it might be one of those rounds which gets away from you, even though I’d struck the ball quite nicely. But then when I holed my chip on 13, I started thinking that it might go my way after all, and that’s how it worked out in the end.
“I birdied 15 and 16, but then three-putted 17 and 18, which was disappointing. On the first hole I left my birdie putt 15 feet short, so I had to hole a long one to make sure I didn’t have three three-putts in a row. So that was pretty big. Once I holed that, I felt much better about life and played well coming home.”
