Spanish star Eugenio Chacarra summed up just how well he is playing after taking the clubhouse lead today in the US$2 million Hong Kong Open, with a first-round seven-under-par 63: “I was in contention to win my last two LIV Golf events and I was in contention last week and obviously I won St Andrews [the St Andrews Bay Championship on the Asian Tour in August].”

It’s a statement of intent from one of the game’s most exciting young golfers here at the magnificent Hong Kong Golf Club (HKGC), Fanling, where he leads from four players who shot 65, after the morning session:  American Andy Ogletree, Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai, Taehee Lee from Korea and Chinese-Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po.

“Hard not to be happy with the round and seven under,” added the strapping 23-year-old, who was the halfway leader at last week’s Volvo China Open before surprisingly slipping back at the weekend, finishing fourth.

Andy Ogletree. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

“I think I have been playing well the last couple months and a half. The game has been there, especially since last week in China. I didn’t feel well after my round on Saturday, after dinner there, and didn’t have a great final day.”

He was bogey-free on the HKGC’s Composite Course in his debut appearance here – in an event that is the penultimate leg of The International Series, with just the BNI Indonesian Masters remaining next week.

He began on 10 and did not hold back making five birdies in his first six, before adding two more on the back.

He added: “This is a course I like a lot. It fits my eye pretty well and reminds me of the course I grew up on. I am excited for the week. It’s just getting better every day.

“It’s a great golf course, it’s tricky and you need to hit the fairways. It came into my eyes the first round I played it. I love it. Hopefully I can come back a lot of years, I am excited for what’s next.  Like my coach said you can lose a tournament in the first round, but you can’t win it. We have a long three days left. It’s a matter of keep getting better.”

Ogletree will wrap up The International Series Order of Merit (OOM) by making the cut this week and take a step closer to claiming the Asian Tour OOM, with four events remaining.

“I’m not too worried about making cuts,” said the winner of this year’s International Series events in Qatar and England.

“I’m trying to win a golf tournament and I’ve always said that good golf takes care of everything and that’s what I’m trying to do this week so just trying to focus on the short term and not what’s going on outside of this week but it’s obviously a great position to be in and I’m super thankful to have the lead on The International Series Order of Merit.”

He made nine birdies but also one double and two bogeys.

Phachara Khongwatmai. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

He added: “The golf course is in great shape, I think there’s a couple spots on the fairways that are a little messed up due to the typhoons that they’ve had but they’ve done a really good job of getting it ready for play this week and I think the greens are some of the purest greens that we’ve played in a long time so you can definitely make a lot of birdies out there and I think the golf course is really good.”

In with 66s are China’s Chen Guxin, who impressively tied for second in the Volvo China Open, Filipino Angelo Que, Kiwi Ben Campbell, Spain’s David Puig, Australian Andrew Dodt, Korean Yeongsu Kim, Indian Ajeetesh Sandhu and Thailand’s Pawin Ingkhapradit.

Main image: Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour