Dubai: Australia’s Kalem Richardson leads after round one of the Asian Tour’s season-ending Dubai Open at The Els Club here after carding a six under par round of 66 on Thursday.
The 26-year-old rookie leads by a stroke ahead of four players all tied for second at five under par 67 — Mena Golf Tour invitee Chris Cannon, Craig Hinton of England, Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert and Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing.
Richardson took advantage of the calm early morning conditions to shoot a birdie, eagle and bogey combination on his front nine before returning with four birdies. Nobody was able to overtake him from the afternoon rounds as the wind picked up.
“You’ve always got to take advantage of your morning conditions because they are normally a bit easier than the afternoon,” said Richardson, who has three top-10 finishes from 16 events in his first season on tour, and stands 50th in the Asian Tour Order of Merit with $75,055 (Dh275,684).
“I’m glad to have put a big one on the board and hopefully tomorrow [Friday] afternoon I’ll get out there and do the same.”
Speaking before those in the afternoon rounds had finished and without knowledge that he would still be leading come the end of the day, Richardson said he was happy with his score but said he doubted it would hold the first-round clubhouse lead.
“I played pretty solid, I only made one mistake on the ninth hole, where I landed a bit short of the flag, but apart from that I wasn’t really under any stress at all and it was really enjoyable.
“The wind was starting to pick up a bit towards the end. It was pretty calm the first few holes but scores are out there to be had. The greens are running really well, if you hit them well onto the greens and give yourself good putts then you’ve got plenty of opportunities.
“I would say the winning score will be somewhere between 18 and 20 [under par] but it all depends on the conditions. I expect there to be some good numbers today [Thursday] and I’m surprised I’m at the top of the leaderboard at six under par.”
Joint second-placed Tangkamolprasert started with two bogeys before recovering with two eagles, either side of a birdie, on his front nine, and returned with a bogey and three consecutive birdies. He said the afternoon wind had played havoc with the late starters.
“The wind changed a lot and you have to be pretty sure to hit, because it’s very difficult to calculate the wind here,” he said.
Cannon, who could earn a two-year Asian Tour exemption with victory here, said he wasn’t surprised to see Mena Tour players doing so well thanks to their knowledge of the course and local conditions.
“It’s you and the golf course, it doesn’t matter who you are playing against,” he said. “Good players will shoot good scores and compete well, and there’s a lot of good players on the Mena Tour now. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if one of us wins it this week.”
