Marcel Siem produced a blistering back nine to join a four-way tie for the opening round lead at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo.
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The German went five under over his closing nine holes to sign for a six under par round of 66 and join South African Thomas Aiken, China’s Haotong Li and Austrian Matthias Schwab at the top of the leaderboard at The Belfry Hotel & Resort, one stroke clear of Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick and Japan’s Keita Nakajima.
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Siem, playing in the penultimate game of the day from the first, sandwiched a birdie with two bogeys to make the turn at one under, but then came to life after taking on the iconic tenth hole on the Brabazon Course.
The 45-year-old hit his tee shot to the fringe before two-putting for birdie, which started a run of three consecutive gains and then moved to five under with a birdie at the par three 14th hole.
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The six-time DP World Tour winner then produced two excellent shots into the par five 17th hole and a two-putt birdie moved him alongside Aiken, Li and Schwab on six under.
While Siem produced a hot finish to end the day, it was Englishman Ben Schmidt who produced the fireworks in the morning.
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Playing in the first group of the day, the 23-year-old recorded his first professional hole-in-one on the par three 14th hole – the same hole tournament host Sir Nick Faldo aced during the 1993 Ryder Cup – to prompt a £50,000 donation to Official Charity Partner Guide Dogs.
Schmidt’s hole-in-one was one 14 eagles carded during round one of the Betfred British Masters, while four players drove the green at the tenth hole. With £500 added to the total for each eagle and each time the green is driven on the tenth, the total at the end of day one stands at £59,000.
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Ryder Cup hopeful Rasmus Højgaard, who needs to finish in a tie for 29th with one other player or better this week to earn a debut for Team Europe next month, got his quest off to a good start, with a three under par round of 69 earning him a tie for 12th after round one.
Player quotes
Marcel Siem: I was a bit rusty, I thought, but I came off a five-week break, and I’m really, really pleased. The back nine was fantastic. Gained a bit of confidence. Played quite solid the front nine. And then, yeah, the hat started to drop. Risking the water on the 10 worked out.
I concentrated more on my physical workouts. I worked really hard, I think harder than ever in my life, in the gym for three weeks. And I feel great. I’m 45. I have to work out in the gym; otherwise, I won’t last long here.
And so I didn’t concentrate that much on my golf, to be honest. I played a lot on the course, but no technical stuff on the range. And, yeah, very happy.
