DUBAI // Sergio Garcia’s opening round at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic was so good that it even confused him a little.
The Spaniard, making his 2017 bow this week, went low in the slightly more amenable morning conditions at Emirates Golf Club, breezing around the Majlis in seven-under par.
Six birdies and an eagle — he bogeyed the eighth, his penultimate hole — contributed to a hugely impressive 65, Garcia’s best ever day’s work in 25 attempts at the event. Not that the world No 15, who leads the tournament by one, realised.
“Ever, here? I think I’ve shot better than that,” said Garcia, whose previous high mark was 66. “No, obviously I played nicely.”
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That was an understatement. To put it another way, Henrik Stenson played alongside Garcia, is the highest-ranked player in the field and also the reigning British Open champion, but still ended up three shots worse off. Yet the world No 4 was “pretty pleased” with his effort.
So Garcia could extract a hefty slice of satisfaction, too. Sitting at the summit and just ahead of South Africa’s George Coetzee and Chilean Felipe Aguilar, he is seeking to turn around a modest Desert Classic record. In seven appearances thus far, Garcia’s finest finish was 11th in 2009.
“A good, solid round,” he said. “It was getting a little bit tasty there at the end, the last five, six holes. I got away with a couple of shots here and there, and I chipped and putted nicely. So it added up to a nice round.”
Nice rounds might be slightly more difficult to come by on Friday. The wind is expected to gust even harder than it eventually did the previous afternoon - four groups failed to complete their first round - which threatens to make life significantly more stressful for all concerned. And not just the players, either.
“Tomorrow is supposed to be really, really tough,” Garcia said. “They are even speaking about not knowing if we are able to play or not, as hard as it might blow.
“So hopefully that doesn’t happen so we can have a nice, normal tournament. But these kind of sandstorms or whatever they are called, you can get them once in a while here and unfortunately it’s catching us.”
At present, Coetzee and Aguilar are closest to catching Garcia. The pair shot matching 66s to sit one shot ahead of a four-man group that includes high-profile Englishman Ian Poulter. After two missed cuts in his past three tournaments, Coetzee seemed the happiest of the bunch.
“Yeah, I haven’t had the best start to the year, so it’s obviously nice to get a nice round in early on,” he said. “I’m hitting good shots. Trying to hit some shots and they are able to come out the way I wanted them. Yeah, hopefully hit it the same the rest of the week.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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