Patrick Reed and Daniel Hillier will share a one-stroke lead heading into the second round of the Qatar Masters after opening with rounds of 65 at Doha Golf Club.
Related: Padraig Harrington set for 500th Tour appearance
2018 Masters champion Reed sits in pole position on the International Swing rankings after winning a maiden Rolex Series title at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic before following it up with a runner-up finish at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship last week, and he continued his rich vein of form in Qatar as he moved to seven under par to set the initial clubhouse target.
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The American, starting from the tenth, made the perfect start with three consecutive birdies. A bogey and another birdie meant his first par did not come until his sixth hole, the 15th, and he had only two in an outward nine of 31 thanks to further gains at the 16th and 17th. He birdied the first, fourth and seventh before dropping a shot at the par three eighth hole.
He was later joined by New Zealand’s Hillier, who made a stunning eagle on his final hole to share the lead at seven under. Hillier occupies fifth position on the Race to Dubai Rankings delivered by DP World after four top-six finishes in his five events so far, including second place at the Dubai Invitational and a tie for fourth in Bahrain.
Hillier also started from the tenth with a pair of birdies, with another at the 16th taking him out in 33. He picked up another three in four holes from the third and after his only bogey of the day at the eighth, a closing eagle provided the perfect finish to his round.
There was a strong Scandinavian presence in the chasing pack, with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, Dane Jacob Skov Olesen and Finland’s Oliver Lindell all at six under.
They were joined late in the day by Spain’s Angel Ayora and Italy’s Gregorio De Leo, the latter ending his round with a bogey at the ninth hole to deny him a share of the lead.
Another Swede, Joakim Lagergren, was five under alongside New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori.
Pádraig Harrington reached a major career milestone at the Qatar Masters, making his 500th start on the DP World Tour – becoming just the 50th player in Tour history to achieve the feat more than 30 years after making his debut at the 1995 Smurfit European Open.
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Harrington has won 43 professional titles in his illustrious career – 15 of which have come on the DP World Tour – and he has represented Europe six times in the Ryder Cup. The Irishman has also become prolific on the over-50s circuit, winning 11 times on the PGA TOUR Champions, and is the reigning U.S. Senior Open and ISPS HANDA Senior Open champion.
12 players will return to finish their first round on Friday morning at 7am local time after play was suspended due to darkness at 5:27pm.
Player quotes:
Patrick Reed: It felt solid. It’s kind of windy this morning when we got up, it forced me to kind of get in rhythm and take the day on, just trying to trust what the wind was doing in my golf swing.
It was nice, I hit the ball pretty well, especially early in the round, a lot of my birdies were just kind of kick-ins which is always nice, not having to think too much around there.
It was a solid start, I would have liked to capitalise on the par-fives a little bit more, and really the par-threes, even though I had a birdie, two of them are bogeys and all the bogeys came on par-threes so just tighten that up a little bit and really just get ready to go.
The golf course, especially when it’s windy like this, it requires a lot of shot-making – you have to work the ball both ways, or flight things down, or take it up in the air.
That’s the kind of golf I like, I like to get creative when I’m out there and really dive into the golf shot, and a golf course like this with a lot of doglegs and cross-winds, it allows you to do that. It’s just one of these places that kind of suits my eye.
We’re definitely enjoying it a lot right now. The game feels solid, I feel like a lot of the work we’ve done in the off-season has really stuck and it’s gone pretty well.
At this point we’re just riding the confidence, allowing ourselves to go out there and just play a little bit aggressive, attack the golf course and worst-case scenario allow my short game to bail me out.
