John Murphy, making his first HotelPlanner Tour start of 2025, is off to a fine start after a three-under 68 that leaves him sharing 10th place at Kaskáda Golf Resort in the Czech Republic.
The Kinsale man leads the four-strong Irish representation, with Max Kennedy a shot behind in a share of 23rd, Mark Power just the wrong side of the cutline at +1, and Jonathan Caldwell with considerable work to do on +4.
Starting on the 10th, Murphy birdied his first, sixth and eighth holes, but also dropped two shots to turn at -1. Further birdies on one and three took him to -3, but after another bogey on the fifth, he found himself back at -2 standing over the final tee shot of the day. Taking care of the par-5 ninth means he’s right on the mark that would see him earn an invitation to next week’s event in France should he hang on through 72 holes.
Kennedy has no such worries about his place in next week’s field, but he’ll be disappointed having made his way to -4 through 13 holes but dropped two shots over the closing five.
Jovan Rebula produced a sensational closing stretch to take a one-shot lead into day two in Brno.
The South African, who is the nephew of four-time Major winner Ernie Els, made the most of ideal round one conditions in the Czech Republic to sign for a seven-under-par round of 64.
Rebula made the turn at two under par before a red-hot back nine of 30 which included six consecutive threes from the 13th, made up of four birdies and an eagle, to move to seven-under and one-shot clear of American Palmer Jackson and Spaniard Sebastian Garcia in second.
“It was one of those days where everything felt right,” he said.
“It was quite cool. I made six threes in a row, and I don’t think I’ve done that before. I was cruising through the front nine and then had a strong finish, and it’s always nice to finish a round of golf like that.”
“I guess I did a really good job of staying in the present during that stretch and focussing on each shot.”
The 27-year-old was pleased to stick to his aggressive opening day gameplan, with this week’s venue rewarding those who take risks off the tee. “It’s one of those golf courses where if you take a little bit of risk, you can make your life so much easier,” the 2018 Amateur Championship winner added.
“I was taking risks today and tried to take aggressive lines because the holes shape quite severely and you can very easily hit it through the fairway. I did a good job of picking good targets and committing to them.”
Hong Kong’s Matthew Cheung, Welshman Stuart Manley, Englishman Callan Barrow and Belgian Yente Van Doren share fourth position on -5, while South African Oliver Bekker is a shot further back in ninth.
The second round of the Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge gets under way at 7:30am local time on Friday morning with Rebula teeing off alongside Toby Tree and Sebastian Friedrichsen at 8:20am.
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