Craig Hinton and Gabriel Canizares shot matching seven-under 65s on Monday to share the lead after the first round of the American Express Dirab Golf Championship, the sixth stop of the MENA Golf Tour this season.
Playing in the day’s very second group, England’s Hinton took full advantage of decent morning conditions at Dirab Golf and Country Club, reeling off one eagle and six birdies against a lone bogey while Canizares of Spain went bogey-free as the duo moved three shots clear of rising English amateur James Allan.
Prince Khaled Saud Al Faisal spearheaded the Saudi challenge with a two-over 74 after making the turn at two under as Morocco’s Ayoub Lguirati fired a three-under 69, highlighted by three birdies in a row from the 14th, to hit the front in the MENA Division for the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation Award.
Prince Khaled Saud Al Faisal spearheads the Saudi challenge with a two-over 74
Shaikh Khaled raced to three under after the 13th, but a triple bogey on the par-5, 15th which was followed by a double bogey on the 17th prevented him from finishing the opening round in red figures.
It was Hinton and Canizares who both had been strong off the tee and just as good with the putter, zooming out to a big lead.
“It’s one of my best rounds on the MENA Golf Tour. This is one course where wind doesn’t come into play and that helped,” said Hinton, who played on the Asian Tour in 2014.
“I picked up three birdies on the front nine which kind of built up the momentum and kept the things going,” said the Englishman whose round included an eagle on the par-five, 13th after he birdied the 11th and 12th.
“I hit my seven iron from 190 yards to within six feet and holed the ensuing putt,” said Hinton who finished with a birdie after dropping the lone shot at the 17th.
“The key to going low on this course is to keep the ball in play. You can find yourself in big trouble if you miss the tree-lined fairways which are quite narrow,” said the 27-year-old from Thame, Oxfordshine.
Two under at the turn, Canizares picked up five shots during a five-hole stretch on the back nine, studded with an eagle on the par-five, 15th, to round off a great day at work.
Elsewhere, Spain’s Xavier Puig joined English amateur Elliott Oxlade and Morocco’s Lguirati in a tie for the fourth after returing a three-under 69, one ahead fellow Spaniard Mariano Ochoa, South Africa’s Thriston Arthur Lawrence and England’s Chris McDonnell.
Pakistan’s Shafiq Masih, who won the inaugural American Express Dirab Golf Championship in 2012, settled for a level-par 72 as England’s Luke Joy, a two- time winner on the MENA Golf Tour, shot a 71 for a share of the 10th place.
Leading scores after the first round (par-72):
65 – Craig Hinton (England) and Gabriel Canizares (Spain)
68 – James Allan (England-AM)
69 – Ayoub Lguirati (Morocco), Elliott Oxlade (England-AM), Xavier Puig (Spain)
70 – Mariano Ochoa (Spain), Thriston Arthur Lawrence (South Africa), Chris
McDonnell (England)
71 – Trevor Marshall (New Zealand), Luke Joy (England), Sixto Casabona-navarro (Spain), Fredrik Lindblom (Sweden)
70 – Shafiq Masih (Pakistan), Tom Boys (England), Victor Bertran (Spain), Ramon Mestre (Spain)
