By Matt Smith
South African Louis de Jager made the perfect start as he kooks for a first-ever DP World Tour win at the Czech Masters.
The 35-year-old carded a course record-equalling eight-under 64 — which was good enough for a one-stroke lead after Day 1.
De Jager is a five-time winner on his home Sunshine Tourbut has yet to taste success on the European circuit since coming through Q-School in 2018.
On Thursday, he started his day with a birdie on the first and then made five birdies in six holes from the sixth to the 11th. Another birdie on 15 allowed him to join Thomas Pieters at the top of the leaderboard and he then posted his eighth gain of the day to take the outright lead on eight-under.
Pieters made a strong start to his bid for a hat-trick of victories at Albatross Golf Resort in Prague. The Belgian won his first of six DP World Tour titles at this venue in 2015 and was victorious again in the Czech capital in 2019.
The 30-year-old carded birdies on each of his opening three holes and was five under par at the turn. His back nine was bookended by bogeys as he made four consecutive birdies from the par five 12th, eventually signing for a seven under 65.
In a share of third are American Jordan Gumberg, last year’s runner-up Tapio Pulkkanen, Marcel Schneider of Germany and the defending champion Johannes Veerman, while Dubai’s MG Keyser is well in touch thanks to a solid 68, including and eagle-birdie run on holes 1 and 2, which put him in a share of 15th spot.
“I’m very pleased,” De Jager said. “It was quite tricky out there today, the wind was from all different directions but me and my caddie made some good calls out there.
“I’ve been hitting the ball well, but I’ve gone back to old things, old tendencies that I keep falling back to. I worked a bit on those at the start of the week and I hit the ball really well today.
Pieters added: “I made some putts that me and my playing partners thought were going to miss today, the greens were getting very bumpy near the end. I think I got a bit of luck, put some good strokes on it. It was tough putting.”
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