Frenchman Alexander Levy kick-started his quest for an historic third Tour success this season with a seven under par 65 on day one of the BMW Masters in Shanghai.
Levy, 24 commenced his round in superb manner with four straight birdies but under a ‘preferred lie’ rule due to the rain-softened Lake Malaren course.
Levy, who last fortnight created European Tour history in becoming the first Frenchman to win two events in a single season, ended the opening round of the first event of the European Tour ‘Final Four Series’ a shot clear of three players sharing second place on six under par.
They include close friend and French compatriot Romain Wattel, Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.
Frenchman Alexander Levy is pretty pleased after posting a seven under par 65 to lead the BMW Masters. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
Levy is no stranger to playing well in China as earlier this year he broke through to claim a maiden Tour victory with success in the Volvo China Open at Shenzhen while last fortnight he captured the rain-shortened Portugal Masters trophy.
“My golf game is very good as I was bogey free in missing only one fairway and I’m still aggressive on the golf course and I like to play this golf, so I need to be thinking this way for the rest of the week,” he said.
“I just like playing in China and for me this golf course is pretty much the same as in Shenzhen where there is a lot of water and you play target golf.
“So I will be trying my best these next three days and try and repeat the same things I did well winning in April.”
Wattel, 23 who teamed with Levy to capture the 2010 Eisenhower Amateur Trophy in Argentina, played his last 15 holes not knowing he could, under the Rules of Golf, replace the damaged club.
“Even though my driver had a crack I got lucky in continuing to use it,” said Wattel.
“And given the length of this course, and also with the rain falling, you really need the driver so I was lucky not to have any real trouble using the club.”
However Wattel indicated he will replace the club and use the driver offered to him by fellow Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, who was first reserve into the $US 7m event but did not tee up.
Colsaerts continues to display the form that earned him selection in the victorious 2012 European Ryder Cup team and revealed he replaced one of his rescue clubs with an old 2-iron that he used to capture the 2011 Volvo China Open and the 2012 Volvo World Match-Play Championship in Spain.
“I have a 3-iron in the bag and the next club up is a rescue club, so I thought with my length I needed something in between as there is so much of a gap between a 3-iron and the rescue clubs,” he said.
“All these guys out here have rescue clubs and Callaway made a pretty good job of it, so I arranged for Marcel Siem to bring the 2-iron out with him here to China.
“I’ve had the club for years and long before I won the Volvo China Open, and I remember hitting this great 2-iron into 16 to defeat Graeme McDowell in the final of the Volvo World Match-Play.”
And Colsaerts is returning to competition after spending a week off at Hua Hin in Thailand, and revealing he underwent a ‘cleansing’ ceremony undertaken by local Buddhist monks.
Graeme McDowell, and one of seven victorious European Ryder Cup stars in the field, finds himself in fifth place and highlighted his bogey-free round of a five under par 67 with three birdies in succession from his 11th hole.
Six players, including two of McDowell’s Gleneagles winning team mates Jamie Donaldson and Thomas Bjorn, plus recent Alfred Dunhill Links champion Oliver Wilson, share sixth place on four under par.
England’s Justin Rose, and also a member of the winning Ryder Cup team, fought back from a treble bogey on the fourth hole of his round after finding water twice, to end with level par 72.
“I can’t remember the last time I shot an ‘8’ as I am not a big numbers guy,” said Rose.
“It was just one of those things where I hit 3-iron in the water and then went up the fairway a bit and hit 5-iron back into the water.
“So it was a disappointing start and really I was just one swing away from shooting four under par.
“Everyone is going to have their one flat day and hopefully that was mine today.”
The rain-affected fairways didn’t affect Italy’s Edoardo Molinari who aced the par three fourth hole he was playing as his 13th hitting a 208-yard 4-iron.
It was Molinari’s second hole-in-one competing on the European Tour and the fifth of his playing career, as well as the 34th overall this season.
Afterwards Molinari was presented with a magnum of champagne and a remote model of a BMW i8 sports sedan and the car on offer for a hole-in-one at the par three 17th.
“I now have a small car and maybe I can win the big one,” he smiled.
