Gran Canaria Lopesan Open R1

Gran Canaria 2021 R1
April 22-25
Meloneras Golf by Lopesan, Gran Canaria, Spain
€1,500,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Tournament host Rafa Cabrera Bello is just two shots off the lead on his idyllic home island, among a congested day one leaderboard at the inaugural Gran Canaria Lopesan Open.

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

“I am very happy. I have been saying it all week that it is a pleasure to have the European Tour back in the Canaries and for someone that was born here, raised here, and I come as often as I can, I always tell everyone how nice it is here, so I am glad we get the opportunity to showcase it to the rest of the world.”

“I am missing a big crowd but I am feeling the support. Some of the holes close to the road had people cheering which was cool, so I want to give them a big thank you for coming out even though they are not here as normal, but they were able to see a little bit of golf.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

Joachim B Hansen, Joost Luiten, Robin Roussel and Max Keiffer – who continued his hot streak in the Canary Islands sun after a second-place finish in Austria last week – recorded seven under par rounds of 63 to share a slender lead at Meloneras Golf by Lopesan.

“It was perfect – just what I wanted to go out and do,” said Hansen. “A perfect start, I played well, kept the ball in play, hit a lot of greens and rolled some putts in.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

“(Low scores) especially in the morning, when there’s not a lot of wind. It picked up on the last four or five holes. It’s a bit weird because it was in a different direction than in practice rounds. I played lovely today, so I look forward to the next few days.”

Spain’s Alejandro del Rey, Scott Jamieson of Scotland and American Julian Suri are amongst a group of seven players at six under par, while Ryder Cup star and Gran Canaria native Cabrera Bello’s five under par round of 65 was matched by a further 12 players.

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

Hansen took the early lead after recording five birdies and an eagle, but the Dane’s score was quickly matched by Luiten in the next group. The Dutchman, also teeing off the tenth, lit up a rollercoaster front nine that included three birdies and two bogies with the fifth hole in one of his European Tour career on the 15th.

“(On the hole- in-one) It was a perfect number for me to hit a wedge,” said Luiten. “It’s tucked just over the bunker but you can use the slope, right to left, I pitched it on the slope with a bit of spin and it went in. It’s one of these bonus things that happens sometimes, it’s always nice to make a hole- in-one.”

“This is my fifth on Tour, and my seventh overall. You can never have enough, I always say. “Seven under is a good score. I played pretty good and gave myself quite a few c hances and made some nice putts coming down the stretch. It’s a good start and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

Germany’s Kieffer got off to a fast start, getting to five under after six holes, with a double bogey on the eighth the only blemish on his scorecard. The trio were then joined at the top of the leaderboard by Frenchman Robin Roussel, who dropped a single shot on his opening hole in his round of 63.

“I’m just hitting the ball very good. The putting stroke is decent as well,” said Kieffer. “You have a lot of chances here if you drive it well. You have lots of wedges and if you get on a good run you can make some birdies.”

“Every week we play in different conditions on the European Tour. It changes a lot because we play everywhere, Middle East, Asia. Out here we are used to adapting to new greens. It’s just getting the reps in on Tuesday and Wednesday and getting the feel for the speed.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R1

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
T1	Joachim B. Hansen *	-7	63
T1	Joost Luiten *	-7	63
T1	Maximilian Kieffer	-7	63
T1	Robin Roussel *	-7	63
T5	Matt Ford *	-6	64
T5	Scott Jamieson *	-6	64
T5	Julian Suri *	-6	64
T5	Wil Besseling	-6	64
T5	Alejandro Del Rey (a)	-6	64
T5	Ben Evans	-6	64
T5	Richard Bland *	-6	64
T12	Gregory Havret	-5	65
T12	Eddie Pepperell *	-5	65
T12	Rhys Enoch *	-5	65
T12	Rafa Cabrera Bello *	-5	65
T12	Dean Burmester *	-5	65
T12	Oliver Wilson *	-5	65
T12	Justin Harding	-5	65
T12	Thorbjørn Olesen	-5	65
T12	Garrick Higgo	-5	65
T12	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	-5	65
T12	Matthias Schwab	-5	65
T12	Jamie Donaldson	-5	65
T12	Clement Sordet	-5	65
T25	Max Schmitt	-4	66
T25	Jack Senior *	-4	66
T25	Zander Lombard	-4	66
T25	Antoine Rozner *	-4	66
T25	Pablo Larrazabal *	-4	66
T25	Jake McLeod *	-4	66
T25	Francesco Laporta	-4	66
T25	Lars van Meijel	-4	66
T25	Darius van Driel	-4	66
T25	Borja Virto	-4	66
T25	Matthieu Pavon	-4	66
T25	Niall Kearney	-4	66
T25	Ajeetesh Sandhu	-4	66
T25	Benjamin Poke	-4	66
T25	Maverick Antcliff *	-4	66
T40	Cormac Sharvin *	-3	67
T40	Lorenzo Gagli *	-3	67
T40	Alexander Björk	-3	67
T40	Ondrej Lieser (a)	-3	67
T40	Suradit Yongcharoenchai	-3	67
T40	Matthew Jordan *	-3	67
T40	Nicolai Højgaard *	-3	67
T40	Alvaro Quiros *	-3	67
T40	Adrian Meronk *	-3	67
T40	Lee Slattery *	-3	67
T40	Ashun Wu	-3	67
T40	Sean Crocker *	-3	67
T40	Tom Gandy	-3	67
T40	Ivan Cantero Gutierrez *	-3	67
T40	Tapio Pulkkanen *	-3	67
T40	Jeff Winther *	-3	67
T40	Sihwan Kim	-3	67
T40	Romain Langasque	-3	67
T40	John Catlin	-3	67
T59	Calum Hill	-2	68
T59	Paul Dunne	-2	68
T59	Victor Dubuisson	-2	68
T59	Tyler Koivisto	-2	68
T59	Garrick Porteous	-2	68
T59	Julien Guerrier *	-2	68
T59	Raphael Jacquelin *	-2	68
T59	Andrew Johnston *	-2	68
T59	Marcel Schneider *	-2	68
T59	Oliver Farr *	-2	68
T59	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño	-2	68
T59	Richard Mansell (a)	-2	68
T59	Robin Sciot-Siegrist *	-2	68
T59	Mikko Korhonen *	-2	68
T59	Kalle Samooja *	-2	68
T59	Grant Forrest *	-2	68
T59	David Drysdale	-2	68
T59	Jonathan Caldwell	-2	68
T59	Jordan Smith	-2	68
T59	Fabrizio Zanotti	-2	68
T59	Joel Stalter *	-2	68
T59	Haydn Porteous *	-2	68
T59	Toby Tree *	-2	68
T59	Paul Waring *	-2	68
T59	Richie Ramsay *	-2	68
T84	Shubhankar Sharma *	-1	69
T84	Dale Whitnell *	-1	69
T84	Louis De Jager	-1	69
T84	Oscar Sanchez	-1	69
T84	Adrien Saddier	-1	69
T84	Marcus Armitage *	-1	69
T84	Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez *	-1	69
T84	Ross Fisher *	-1	69
T84	Austin Bautista *	-1	69
T84	Adri Arnaus *	-1	69
T84	Sam Horsfield *	-1	69
T84	Oliver Fisher	-1	69
T84	Ricardo Santos	-1	69
T84	Justin Walters *	-1	69
T84	James Morrison *	-1	69
T84	Gaganjeet Bhullar *	-1	69
T84	Nino Bertasio *	-1	69
T84	Sebastian Heisele *	-1	69
T84	Edoardo Molinari *	-1	69
T84	Masahiro Kawamura	-1	69
T84	Janne Kaske	-1	69
T84	Alfredo Garcia-Heredia	-1	69
T84	Richard McEvoy	-1	69
T84	Jorge Campillo	-1	69
T108	Alejandro Cañizares	E	70
T108	Guido Migliozzi	E	70
T108	Johannes Veerman	E	70
T108	Adrian Otaegui	E	70
T108	Steven Tiley	E	70
T108	Carlos Pigem	E	70
T108	Chris Wood *	E	70
T108	Ashley Chesters *	E	70
T108	Alexander Levy *	E	70
T108	Andy Sullivan *	E	70
T108	Samuel Del Val *	E	70
T108	Scott Fernandez	E	70
T108	Dave Coupland	E	70
T108	Liam Johnston	E	70
T108	Berry Henson *	E	70
T123	Connor Syme *	1	71
T123	Euan Walker (a) *	1	71
T123	Sebastian Soderberg	1	71
T123	Thomas Sloman	1	71
T123	David Howell	1	71
T123	Lucas Bjerregaard	1	71
T123	Yi Keun Chang	1	71
T123	Steven Brown	1	71
T123	Jean Baptiste Gonnet	1	71
T123	Søren Kjeldsen	1	71
T123	Eduardo De la Riva *	1	71
T123	Kurt Kitayama *	1	71
T123	Carl Suneson *	1	71
T123	Aaron Cockerill *	1	71
T123	Pedro Oriol *	1	71
T123	David Law *	1	71
T123	Matthew Southgate *	1	71
T123	Pep Angles	1	71
T141	Pedro Figueiredo *	2	72
T141	Benjamin Hebert *	2	72
T141	Eduard Rousaud (a) *	2	72
T144	Ross McGowan *	3	73
T144	Rikard Karlberg	3	73
T144	Joakim Lagergren	3	73
T147	SSP Chawrasia	4	74
T147	Peter Hanson	4	74
149	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	6	76
150	Andrea Pavan *	8	78
151	Inaki Fuentes	13	83
* Player started on the back nine