Jakarta, Indonesia: Mathiam Keyser of South Africa fired 11 birdies to grab the opening round lead with a nine-under-par 63 at the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament presented by Panasonic on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old only dropped two bogeys to lead by one shot over Blake Snyder of the United States at the US$110,000 Asian Development Tour (ADT) event played at the Damai Indah Golf, BSD Course.
Talented Thai Tirawat Kaewsiribandit was a further shot back in third place following a 65 while India’s Udayan Mane, Filipino veteran Antonio Lascuna, local hope Andrew Wirawan and Wolmer Murillo of Venezuella shared fourth on 66s.
Keyser, who won his first ADT title last year, took advantage of his sharp shooting game as he returned with his best score at the BSD course.
“Everything went well. This is a course where you have to keep it on the fairway and you can attack the greens with a lot of wedges. I kept doing that all day. There wasn’t anything exceptional in my round. I was putting for eagle on the par fives so it is always easier to be two putting for birdies,” said the South African.
“I’ve always like this course from the first time I came here (2014) but I was never able to play well. I went back to Dubai recently and I did a lot of work on my wedges and it has paid off,” added Keyser.
By featuring on the ADT schedule, the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament will offer Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points. The winner will receive six OWGR points while the top six players and ties will also earn points based on a sliding scale.
For more information on the ADT, please visit www.asiandevelopmenttour.com.
Leading first round scores:
63 - Mathiam KEYSER (RSA)
64 - Blake SNYDER (USA)
65 - Tirawat KAEWSIRIBANDIT (THA)
66 - Udayan MANE (IND) , Antonio LASCUNA (PHI) , Andrew WIRAWAN (INA) , Wolmer MURILLO (VEN)
67 - KOH Deng Shan (SGP) , Nattawat SUVAJANAKORN (THA) , Paul HARRIS (USA) , Itthipat BURANATANYARAT (THA) , Steve LEWTON (ENG)
68 - Michael BIBAT (PHI) , Oscar ZETTERWALL (SWE) , Rifqi ALAM (A) (INA) , Casey O'TOOLE (USA) , John Michael O'TOOLE (USA) , Jonathan WOO (SGP) , Marcus BOTH (AUS) , Johnson POH (SGP)
69 - Samarth DWIVEDI (IND) , Atthaphon SRIBOONKAEW (THA) , Mardan MAMAT (SGP) , Gunn CHAROENKUL (THA) , Seungjae MAENG (USA) , Suradit YONGCHAROENCHAI (THA) , Pijit PETCHKASEM (THA) , Amir NAZRIN (MAS) , Masaru TAKAHASHI (JPN) , James BYRNE (SCO) , Benita KASIADI (INA) , John CATLIN (USA) , James BOWEN (USA) , Donlaphatchai NIYOMCHON (THA) , Janne KASKE (FIN).
