Conor Purcell impressed on the opening day of the inaugural Hangzhou Open to snatch the outright lead by posting an eight under par round of 63.
The Portmarnock man leads by one from Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg and Italian Gregorio De Leo, who returned with matching 64s at the West Lake International Golf and Country Club.
Purcell, who finished tied-59th at the Hainan Open – the first of the Challenge Tour’s back-to-back events in China – stormed out of the blocks with five birdies for an outward 31.
The 27-year-old picked up another shot on the 12th hole before marking his blemish-free card with two closing birdies on 17 and 18.
“I didn’t play my best golf last week and it’s nice to start the week with eight-under,” he said. “I drove the ball pretty well and hit lots of fairways.
“On this golf course, if you start to miss the fairways, it becomes very difficult to hit greens. I’m very pleased with how I’ve hit off the tee and put good shots in.”
Purcell currently sits 12th on the Road to Mallorca Rankings having secured a maiden Challenge Tour title in the Black Desert NI Open presented by Tom McKibbin in July.
With two events left of the Challenge Tour season, Purcell is hopeful of ending the year on a high note but admits there is still plenty of work to do.
“It has been an up and down year,” he added. “I had some good results and spells where I didn’t play very well. But overall, I’m very pleased with where I am, especially with this being the second last event.
“I just keep pushing and try to win every week. There’s still lots of golf to play and I need to make more birdies.
“Everyone here still has the chance to win the tournament so I’m just trying to focus on my game and hitting the best shots I can and see where it leaves me.”
Gary Hurley is next best of the Irish on level-par. The Waterford man began with 12 straight pars but his first birdie was sandwiched between two bogeys on four and six. He responded with another birdie on eight to reach the clubhouse with a 71 and in a share of 66th place. He’ll likely need to shoot a round in red figures on day two to see action over the weekend.
The same goes for Jonathan Caldwell, but at one-over, his task is a little tougher. The Clandeboye man reached the turn in two-under after birdies on two, eight and nine and a bogey on four. A disappointing double bogey-bogey start to the back nine undid all the good work, and he had to settle for seven consecutive pars to close which leaves him tied for 84th.
Swede Niklas Lemke, Englishman Ben Schmidt, Spaniard Angel Ayora and South African Justin Walters share fourth place on six under par.
China’s Ding Wenyi, winner of the 2024 Global Amateur Pathway, enjoyed a promising start in his first tournament as a professional by signing for a 66 to trail Purcell by three shots in a share of eighth place.
Round two gets under way at 6:30am local time with Purcell teeing off at 6:50am alongside Sydney Chung of the United States and Sweden’s Björn Åkesson.