Scot Ewen Ferguson celebrated his 50th DP World Tour event sensationally eagling the last to snatch a super impressive four-shot lead on the opening day of the ISPS Handa World Invitational at the Galgorm Resort course in Ballymena.
Ferguson, 26, also also eagled his 10th hole to set a new course record with his nine-under 61.
A fortnight ago, Ferguson shared a new course record also of a 61 on day two of the Hero Open on the outskirts of St. Andrews.
Ferguson kick-started his Northern Ireland round holing a 12-footer for birdie at the first and after birdies at the fourth and seventh holes the reigning CB Qatar Masters champ superbly sent a 278-yard second shot from down the left side of the par-5 10th hole, and then holing his 21-footer for an eagle ‘3’.
✅ Course record 61
✅ Leads by four
✅ Played with friend @connor_symeA good day for @EwboF 😎#WorldInvitational pic.twitter.com/uOdIuj6tI6
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 11, 2022
He went two clear of the field with birdies at the 13th and 14th holes before landing his 228-yard second shot from the rough to some 14-yards shy of the flag, and then chipped in for his second eagle.
Helping Ferguson he said was playing Wednesday’s Pro-Am in the company of Irish football legend Robbie Keane and his Modest Golf manager, Niall Horan.
He said: “I hit it in a lot of bunkers during the Pro-Am and Niall and Robbie were saying to me ‘You must love playing out of the bunkers’, so today I managed to avoid them all which was quite good.
“I then received a text message this morning from Niall saying great playing yesterday and wishing me well today, so that was nice.
”I just felt pretty good about my game today and with the weather being so good, it was just a case of going out and seeing what I could shoot. So, to post a new course record 61 was special.
“I just found I was not getting into my left side very well, so I was hanging back and hitting a few shots left but it was all good on the course.”
The big ask now for Ferguson is to follow-up his second course record in seven rounds with another low one given the young Scot is conscious of posting a no-frills 72 the day after his second round 61 at the Fairmont Resort.
Ferguson said: “It is always hard to follow-up a low score with another the next round as I did at St. Andrews in shooting 11-under and then next day the game felt quite difficult.
“So, it is hard but at the end of the day your golf game doesn’t know what’s going on so you just keep that in mind and try to keep on having fun”.
LIV Golf recruit Richard Bland was also bogey-free for his 65 to be sharing second place with Spaniard Borga Virto.
A day earlier, Bland and the former emotional British Masters winner shocked the golf world with revelation of his chat with DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley where-in ‘Blandy’ revealed Pelley remarked he would have joined Bland in going to LIV had he been in Bland’s shoes.
Bland said: “When we were at the Centurion Club, we certainly didn’t know what was going on. I had two or three meetings with Keith Pelley, our CEO, and he said to me when we were at The Belfry for the British Masters, ‘If I was in your position, I would have done exactly the same as you are going to do’”
Next best of the nine Scots in the field are Calum Fife and Connor Syme with 66s.
