Scot Ewen Ferguson savoured the Turkish Airlines Open delight of being just one shot from the lead following the opening day of the Turkish Airlines Open at Antalya.
Ferguson picked up six birdies in a five-under 67 and headed to day two tied in second place with Spaniard Alejandro Del Ray and South African Daniel van Tonder also went bogey-free during the afternoon wave to card a 67 on the host Gloria course.
Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg holed a five-footer for birdie at his closing hole to enjoy a one stroke first round lead at six-under.
The three-time Tour winning Ferguson was out in the first three-ball of the day from the 10th tee and the Scot was off to a great start thanks to back-to-back birdies at 10 and 11 and then moved to three-under after he birdied the 14th.
Ferguson dropped the only shot of his round at the 16th but ended his nine holes with birdies on 17 and 18 to be four under ahead of picking-up just the one birdie, at the par-4 seventh hole on his inward nine.
Scot EWen Feguson off to a great start at the Turkish Airlines Open. Image DPWT
“You need to be really straight off the tee around here“, said Ferguson.
“If you get that done, you get a lot of chances. At the start of the day there was no wind. I felt good first out, the greens were pure and I just took advantage of that which is nice. It’s not often you go first out so I was the first person putting on fresh cut greens which does make a difference. I was glad to take advantage of that, that’s where the birdies came from on my front nine, which was the back nine.
“As I got on the first hole on my back nine, I could feel it was starting to get a bit tougher which I was not unhappy about, knowing a lot more people were teeing off. The second hole is a super difficult hole. Island green so I had to really focus with a long iron and a par was nice there. It was nice, I manager to doctor my way around the front nine in the wind.
“My game is not far away. The margins in golf are small aren’t they. Last week I didn’t have a great week, but it takes me a while to build my game. I didn’t play awful last week but I practiced quite hard over the weekend, and I think I have found something in my game.“
Four other Scots – Grant Forrest. Richie Ramsay, Euan Walker and Daniel Young – posted one-under 71s.
