Henrik Stenson reaffirmed his position as one of the most exciting talents in European golf when an impressively controlled five under par 67 gave the Swede the lead after the first round of the BMW Asian Open at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club in China.
The 30 year old tamed the demanding Shanghai course to take a one shot lead over Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and Jean Van de Velde of France and give himself the ideal platform to attempt his second win of the year in co-sanctioned tournaments between The European Tour and the Asian Tour – his first coming in The Commercialbank Qatar Masters in Doha at the end of January.
Starting at the tenth, Stenson, who will make his Ryder Cup debut at The K Club in September, was flawless over his first nine holes, his only departures from par coming with birdies at the 11th, 13th and 16th, his second, fourth and seventh holes of the day.
Although he dropped a shot on the inward half, on the 235 yard third hole, he more than made up for it with three further gains at the second, fifth and eighth holes, the birdie putts dropping into the cup from seven, ten and 25 feet respectively.
“I was happy with the front nine and hit a couple of bad shots on the back nine, but overall I had one of my better rounds today than the previous two events I was involved in,” he said. “Hopefully I am moving in the right direction and have to go out and practice and keep it up tomorrow.”
Another man definitely moving in the right direction is one of Stenson’s closest challengers, Van de Velde. The 39 year old, who gave serious consideration to quitting golf altogether after suffering an horrendous knee injury skiing in 2002, showed he was back to his best with a delightful opening 68.
The winner of the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos tournament four weeks ago – a victory which saw him named European Tour Golfer of the Month for March – has grown in confidence since then and the former Ryder Cup player admitted he was still riding the wave of euphoria.
“I am very happy with my game at the moment without doubt,” he said. “As I said before, I have been playing really well since I came back and it is just a matter of staying patient and being lucky.
“You have to compete and make it happen because the competition is better and better every year. You have to perform and therefore having a great start and winning, you think, here we go, I am going to play golf tournaments up until the end of 2008 so that is a luxury not many people have.”
Three birdies in his opening nine holes saw him to the turn in 33 and he also carded birdies at both par fives on the front nine, the 550 yard second and the 570 yard ninth – his final hole of the day. Such a yield would have been good enough to share the lead with Stenson were it not for his solitary bogey of the day, which came at the short eighth hole where he underhit his seven iron tee shot and failed to get up and down from the front of the green.
“I thought it was going to be a tough test but when I teed off this morning the conditions were ideal and I knew that with moisture on the greens, this was the morning to try and put it together if you could because you had a good chance to stop the ball very quickly,” he said.
“So it went according to plan and I hit a few good shots. I had a very good front nine which was from the tenth to the 18th. It got a bit rocky on my back nine but I kept it together, managed to make a few up and downs, made a silly bogey on the eighth but managed to birdie the ninth.”
Alongside Van de Velde on 68 was Gallacher, who began to rediscover some of the form which saw him win the dunhill links championship at St Andrews in October 2004, with a round which, like the Frenchman, featured five birdies and only one bogey.
Gallacher started like a train with three birdies in his opening four holes from the 11th to the 13th and indeed narrowly missed his eagle putt on the 568 yard 13th which would have seen him stand four under par after four holes.
But after that, his round was a microcosm of his season as a whole, a little stop-start with some good scrambling for pars alongside some missed opportunities for birdies, and he eventually had to settle for a share of second place as the dust settled on the opening day.
“I’ve been a bit scrappy this year and haven’t been playing that great to be honest but it only needs one good week to get a bit of confidence and this is building up nicely to the big tournaments at home,” he said.
“I was a little disappointed not to win last year after the dunhill success but, you know what it is like in golf, if you try and force it, you won’t do it, you just have to try and get into contention again and take it from there.
“That is what happened the last time before I won, I had six or seven top ten finishes and you learn from being in contention – then it is just a case of going on and doing it. At least I know I can do it – it is just a case of trying to get back into contention now.”
Six players shared fourth place after opening with respective three under par 69s, Australia’s Marcus Fraser, Ireland’s Peter Lawrie, Philippines’ Frankie Minoza and Charlie Wi of Korea, alongside two of the tournament favourites, Thomas Björn of Denmark and Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie.
Of the group, eight time European Tour Order of Merit winner Montgomerie was the most aggrieved not to be higher up the leaderboard after carding a bogey six at his final hole of the day, the 570 yard ninth, where he found the water when going for the green in two.
