Ho Tram, Vietnam, December 3: Local star Michael Tran eclipsed illustrious playing partners Darren Clarke and Jeev Milkha Singh in the first round of Ho Tram Open with a score five-under-par 66 to be on top best players. Meanwhile, Korea’s Charlie Wi had a great day when he produced a superb 10-birdie round, including five birdies in a row to roll back the years to establish a course record of nine-under-par 62 for the early first round lead at Ho Tram Open.
Duy Nhat started his first round at 11:30 at Tee No.1 with Ryder Cup Captain & Former Open Champion – Darren Clarke and India golfer – Jeev Milkha Singh, after making a mistake to get a bogey at Hole #1, Vietnam’s No.1 golfer quickly regained the accuracy in his shots, he had close range birdies on holes #2 #4 #6 #8 #10 before making another boget at par 3 hole #11 but other 2 birdies at hole #12 and #16 helped him to end the first day in tied seventh place alongside the likes world number 12 Sergio Garcia while Clarke and Singh, shot 73 and 70.
“Darren and Jeev are great players and I wanted to do as good as them but today I played better so I’m very happy. I three-putted the first hole (for bogey) but hit it close for my three birdies. Those were very good birdies because it was howling.
“I was looking forward to playing with Darren and Jeev. I actually felt comfortable out there. My putting has always been off but if I can get my putter going then I feel I can play well every week,” he added.
Another Vietnamese golfer – the newly winner of Vietnam Golf Championship 2015 Truong Chi Quan did not have a good first day as he finished his first round with the score 8-over par 79 in tied 119th place.
In the interview after the first round, Sergio Garcia said: “ Quan is a nice kid, he had some very good holes at the beginning, but psychological stress due to the first time playing with the professional golfers, he made many regrettable mistakes, this is a very normal thing as I was also like that during my first professional tournaments.”
World number 12 Sergio Garcia of Spain posted a 66 to stay within striking reach of the early pacesetter.
