British Masters 2022 R1

May 05-08
The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England
£1,850,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

New Zealand's Ryan Fox closed his opening round with a birdie from 35-feet for a 6-under finish and a share of the lead of the Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett alongside Dane Thorbjørn Olesen.

British Masters 2022 R1

"I feel like if you drive it well around here you get quite a lot of opportunities," said Fox. "You can hit a lot of wedges in and there's probably four or five holes you've really got to play nice and safe - make your par.

"Six definitely, eight and nine can sneak up on you a little bit, 12 is hard and obviously 18 is a really strong hole, so if you can get through those holes without any damage you can kind of attack the rest of the golf course, and I managed to do that pretty well."

British Masters 2022 R1

"I've missed most of my drives in the right place, which is a good thing to do," he continued. "I didn't hit a lot of fairways but I was just off on a lot and the rough's a little patchy this week so you can kind of get away with it.

"It's a fun golf course to play. I grew up on this kind of grass as well so it fits quite nicely in my head. I kind of know what it's going to do and how it's going to react. Just go out and try and hit a couple of shots, and I did that pretty well."

British Masters 2022 R1

Olesen started in the morning and set the clubhouse target with a bogey-free round.

"Obviously a good start with birdie on ten, my first hole. I thought I played really well, thought I've had some good rounds this year and just haven't finished it off.

"It was really nice to get that up-and-down on the last and have that momentum and not make a bogey today. I was really pleased with that.

"There's a lot of things I want to accomplish. You have to stay in the present obviously but it's been a while since I've been in the winner's circle, and that's my main goal this year.

"Obviously I'm working hard on my swing, changed coach. It's starting to get a lot better and hopefully I can just build on some confidence with it."

Scotland's Richie Ramsay lies in second place at 5-under alongside Germany's Hurly Long and China's Ashun Wu who remained bogey-free.

British Masters 2022 R1