Saudi International R1

February 04-07
Royal Greens G&CC, King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
$3,500,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

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Englishman David Horsey fired seven birdies on his back nine for bogey free round of 61 to take a one shot lead in the opening round of the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.

“It’s a shock actually. I’ve been playing rubbish the last couple weeks. Didn’t feel like I controlled my ball the first two events.”

The four-time European Tour winner came home in just 28 shots to add to earlier birdies on the fifth and sixth holes, setting the early pace on nine under par at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club.

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“I had a conversation with a pal back home last night, talking a few things through and suggested something that I work on away from the tournament. Knowing me, I thought, well, can’t get any worse, so I may as well try it and here we are. It was just how my body is moving quite sort of technical really. It’s nice to have a feel you can sort of wake up and pick up straightaway. I didn’t really feel like I missed many shots. I holed a couple of nice, lengthy putts as well and it all adds up to 61.”

Horsey missed the cut in the first two events of the European Tour’s Middle East swing, but he holds a one stroke advantage over former Ryder Cup player Stephen Gallacher, of Scotland, who posted ten birdies in an eight under par round of 62.

“I actually hit it really close to the pin today which was good, and I managed to hole those sort of ten-foot putts for birdie I had. It was one of those sort of just go on a roll and kept knocking them in,” said Gallacher.

“ I wanted to just draw a line in the sand for 2020. With everything that happened, the pandemic, my dad, losing friends, it was just one of those terrible years. I couldn’t wait for 2021 come really and get back to sort of a bit of normality and get back playing and back enjoying it.

“I worked hard in the winter in the gym and on my net in the house, and came out early and showed a bit of formerly doors. So, 2020, just erase it from my memory and look forward now to 2021.”

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Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger is two shots further back on six under par after signing for a 65, with U.S. Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau amongst a group on five under.

“I’m definitely very pleased,” said DeChambeau. “I was driving it a bit all over the place for the most part out there. Hit some good drives to six and seven. But was definitely struggling with the driver and a little bit of the irons, and I have to clean that up for tomorrow. If I can do that and put the way I did today, I’ll certainly be pleased.

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“I know that I’m putting well. I know that I can hit it far out here. I’m disappointed it’s not as far as I would like it but once I got out there and was hitting some wayward shots, you have to try to rein it in and control it better.

“I was able to do that for the most part and miss it in the right places and hopefully I miss it in the right places when I do hit it off-line.”

World Number One Dustin Johnson opened with a three under par 67, as did his two playing partners, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner Tyrrell Hatton and reigning Race to Dubai Champion Lee Westwood.

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
1	David Horsey	-9	61
2	Stephen Gallacher	-8	62
3	Bernd Wiesberger	-6	64
T4	Thomas Pieters	-5	65
T4	Haotong Li	-5	65
T4	Bryson DeChambeau	-5	65
T4	Ryan Fox	-5	65
T4	Calum Hill	-5	65
T4	Marcus Kinhult	-5	65
T10	George Coetzee	-4	66
T10	Masahiro Kawamura	-4	66
T10	Fabrizio Zanotti	-4	66
T10	Andy Sullivan	-4	66
T10	Laurie Canter	-4	66
T10	Jhonattan Vegas	-4	66
T10	Mikko Korhonen	-4	66
T17	Victor Perez	-3	67
T17	Martin Kaymer	-3	67
T17	Takumi Kanaya	-3	67
T17	Dustin Johnson	-3	67
T17	Lee Westwood	-3	67
T17	Tyrrell Hatton	-3	67
T17	Antoine Rozner	-3	67
T17	Thomas Detry	-3	67
T17	Kurt Kitayama	-3	67
T17	Joost Luiten	-3	67
T17	Ian Poulter	-3	67
T17	Danny Willett	-3	67
T17	James Morrison	-3	67
T17	Jeff Winther	-3	67
T31	Chris Paisley	-2	68
T31	Oliver Wilson	-2	68
T31	Sean Crocker	-2	68
T31	Guido Migliozzi	-2	68
T31	Viktor Hovland	-2	68
T31	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-2	68
T31	Matthieu Pavon	-2	68
T31	Matthias Schwab	-2	68
T31	Ashun Wu	-2	68
T31	Steven Brown	-2	68
T31	Ross McGowan	-2	68
T31	Justin Walters	-2	68
T31	Justin Harding	-2	68
T31	Adrian Otaegui	-2	68
T31	Justin Rose	-2	68
T31	Phil Mickelson	-2	68
T31	Tommy Fleetwood	-2	68
T31	Tony Finau	-2	68
T49	Kevin Na	-1	69
T49	Shubhankar Sharma	-1	69
T49	Richard Sterne	-1	69
T49	Jorge Campillo	-1	69
T49	Shergo Al Kurdi (a)	-1	69
T49	Kalle Samooja	-1	69
T49	Adri Arnaus	-1	69
T49	Pablo Larrazabal	-1	69
T49	Søren Kjeldsen	-1	69
T49	Min Woo Lee	-1	69
T49	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	-1	69
T49	Romain Langasque	-1	69
T49	Dean Burmester	-1	69
T49	Paul Casey	-1	69
T49	John Catlin	-1	69
T49	Patrick Reed	-1	69
T49	Rafa Cabrera Bello	-1	69
T49	Aaron Rai	-1	69
T49	Ross Fisher	-1	69
T49	Jazz Janewattananond	-1	69
T49	Julian Suri	-1	69
T49	Grant Forrest	-1	69
T49	Joel Stalter	-1	69
T72	Lucas Herbert	E	70
T72	David Drysdale	E	70
T72	Andrew Johnston	E	70
T72	Ashley Chesters	E	70
T72	David Lipsky	E	70
T72	Rasmus Højgaard	E	70
T72	Matthew Southgate	E	70
T72	Jason Kokrak	E	70
T72	Graeme McDowell	E	70
T72	Garrick Higgo	E
T72	David Law	E	70
T72	Cormac Sharvin	E	70
T72	Kristoffer Broberg	E	70
T72	Francesco Laporta	E	70
T72	Haydn Porteous	E	70
T72	Harry Hall	E	70
T72	Julien Guerrier	E	70
T72	Joachim B. Hansen	E	70
T72	Brandon Stone	E	70
T72	Shane Lowry	E	70
T72	Sergio Garcia	E	70
T93	Jordan Smith	1	71
T93	Wilco Nienaber	1	71
T93	Alvaro Quiros	1	71
T93	Maximilian Kieffer	1	71
T93	David Howell	1	71
T93	Benjamin Hebert	1	71
T93	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	1	71
T93	Paul Waring	1	71
T93	Wade Ormsby	1	71
T93	Lorenzo Gagli	1
T93	Gavin Kyle Green	1	71
T93	Othman Almulla	1	71
T93	Robert MacIntyre	1	71
T93	Abraham Ancer	1	71
T93	Scott Hend	1	71
T93	Alexander Levy	1	71
T93	Victor Dubuisson	1	71
T110	Jamie Donaldson	2	72
T110	Renato Paratore	2	72
T110	Alexander Björk	2	72
T110	Henrik Stenson	2	72
T110	Miguel Angel Jiménez	2	72
T110	Oliver Fisher	2	72
T110	Zander Lombard	2	72
T110	Eduard Rousaud (a)	2	72
T118	Richie Ramsay	3	73
T118	Tapio Pulkkanen	3	73
T118	Richard McEvoy	3	73
T118	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	3	73
T118	Edoardo Molinari	3	73
T118	Chris Wood	3	73
T118	Paul Dunne	3	73
T118	Sebastian Soderberg	3	73
T118	Sami Valimaki	3	73
T118	Matt Wallace	3	73
T128	Scott Jamieson	4	74
T128	Andrea Pavan	4	74
T128	Ernie Els	4	74
T128	Jayden Schaper	4	74
T128	Thomas Bjørn	4	74
T128	Marc Warren	4	74
T134	Jason Scrivener	5	75
T134	Nino Bertasio	5	75
136	Raphael Jacquelin	6	76
137	Faisal Salhab (a)	7	77
138	Saud Al Sharif	10	80