American Luke Guthrie leads the way at the BMW Masters, despite having to overcome a 7,000 mile journey to reach the tournament in Shanghai. The 23-year-old finished in a tie for fifth on Sunday at the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s Open in Las Vegas, before embarking on a trans-continental journey to China to compete in the first event of the European Tour’s inaugural ‘Final Series’.
Guthrie would shake off the jet lag, and carry on that form from Vegas, by compiling an opening round of 65 to lead by three shots at the end of day one of this extremely lucrative event.
Guthrie only turned professional last year, and has two victories on the Web.Com Tour to his credit already. Making his first appearance in a regular European Tour event, the player from Illinois would birdie the second, third and seventh to make the turn in 33, before further birdies at the 13th and 14th. An obvious highlight would be the par five 15th, where the American chipped in for eagle to seven-under for the round.
Guthrie would par his final three holes to complete a successful opening round on this windy day, which sees him three shots of clear of two-time major champion John Daly, who is also doing the stars and stripes proud in China.
“It was a great day,” said Guthrie, who tamed the breezy conditions. “It was one of the better rounds I've ever played.
”I had 19 putts, and that was definitely the key to my round.
”I had about five weeks off before I played the last two weeks over on the PGA Tour, and I've been playing solid, hitting it a lot better and just been getting a lot out of my rounds again, which is nice.”
In recent times, it has become more commonplace for young American players to branch out into worldwide events. That has been a successful formula for the likes of Peter Uihlein and Brooks Koepka, and Guthrie himself is keen to develop as a global player.
”I love Shanghai. This is my first time over in China and Asia, and I just wanted to challenge myself to come travel abroad and get used to this, and just keep gaining experiences and get better at becoming a global player.
”I was really looking forward to this tournament on my schedule and I just can't be more happy to be here.”
Also happy to be here was 47-year-old John Daly, who is returning from a four-month layoff after elbow surgery.
The winner of the 1995 Open Championship at St. Andrews illustrated some of that prowess in the wind, as he rolled back the years to shoot a four-under round of 68 with not a solitary bogey on the card. An impressive effort from anyone let alone a player returning from a significant period out with injury.
”Luckily I got a lot of shots that came out right today.
”My elbow has been ailing me for probably six years, and the last four have been really just brutal and finally to get the surgery done, it's nice to be able to pinch chips, which I haven't been able to do in a long time, so that's encouraging.”
This week is the first of the four events that will make up the inaugural Final Series. With the season culminating in Dubai, Henrik Stenson currently holds a €425,573 lead over Graeme McDowell at the top of the Race to Dubai. However, with a first prize of €850,000 on offer this week, and a total prize fund of $31 Million during the Series, the battle to finish the year as number one on the European Tour is more than wide open.
Peter Uihlein completes an American trio at the top, after his opening round of 69 saw him ascend into third place on the leaderboard. The European Tour rookie, who has impressed all season, claimed his maiden victory in the Madeira Islands Open, before missing out on subsequent opportunities since, most notably a playoff defeat at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
“That was tough today, that was really hard,” said Uihlein, who came into this week tenth on the Race To Dubai, with the top 15 finishes sharing a proportion of the $3,750,000 Race to Dubai Bonus Pool. “That was some round by Luke - I don't know what course he played, but that was really difficult today.
”I got off to a bad start and I was able to grind it out and finish well, so it was nice.”
Graeme McDowell, who is second on the Race to Dubai, opened with a two-under round of 70, while his playing partner Rory McIlroy looked much more confident as he compiled a Thursday effort on 71in the trying conditions at Lake Malaren.