Conor Purcell finds himself the wrong side of the cutline after a weather-affected opening round of the DP World Tour’s KLM Open at Amsterdam’s The International Club.
Starting on the 10th, the Portmarnock man got off to a rough start with four bogeys over his opening nine holes, but clawed his way back into the tournament with a trio of birdies over the first six holes on the front side. Unfortunately, he gave another shot back on the seventh and his two-over tally sees him one shot shy of the provisional cut mark.
Ricardo Gouveia produced what he described as the round of his life to lead by one shot at the day’s end.
The Portuguese, starting from the tenth hole, played his first nine at The International in a blistering seven-under-par with birdies at every hole save for the 13th and 16th.
The 33-year-old made another at the third but then saw his momentum checked by a 90-minute storm delay, closing out his day with a bogey to sign for a new course record 64 at seven under par.
Gouveia credited the work done on his game over the last two weeks after an observation from his coach during the Soudal Open in Belgium.
“It was one of those rounds where I started off really well and just kept the momentum going and holed a lot of putts,” Gouveia said.
“I haven’t holed that many putts in a long time but obviously hit it very close on the front nine and then on the back nine, I kept playing well but with the stop and restart it was a bit tricky. It’s always tricky when you are playing well but I am really please with the round, I would say it is the best round of my life.
“I thought in every department I was really good today. I haven’t been this consistent in a while, so it was good to have a round like this, to have great feelings on the golf course in every aspect of my game.
“I started off the season really well and in Belgium I felt like the game was good going into the week and then I just made a few mistakes, and my coach was there on the sidelines, and he noticed something which we worked on quite a bit over the weekend there to prepare for Austria.
“The long game was much better in Austria, but the putting wasn’t good, so I knew a good round like this was very close. I had great preparation this week and I was feeling good going into the round, but in golf you never know so I stayed very patient, and I barely made any mistakes today so that was key.”
Connor Syme birdied the last to sit just one behind on six-under, ahead of a large group at five under including fellow Scot Richie Ramsay, France’s Pierre Pineau, Englishman Daniel Brown, American John Catlin, Germany’s Max Kieffer and Swede Joakim Lagergren.
Syme felt the conditions after the rain delay helped him build a score. The Scot’s eight birdies included three in a row from the seventh and were offset by only two dropped shots.
Spaniard Angel Hidalgo and Frenchman David Ravetto completed the top 10 at -4.
Leave a comment