Tiger Christensen fired seven birdies, six of them consecutively from the 10th, as well as one bogey to close with a 6-under 65 and take a share of the lead at the Turkish Airlines Open.
Christensen, who usually plays on the HotelPlanner Tour, received an invitation to play at Regnum Carya this week.
“I think we had a good game plan, stayed patient all day,” said the German. “I played pretty good on the front nine but just happened to not really get it close enough to the hole, where the putts will drop.
“Then I made a good one from the fringe on ten and it kind of got going and then hit it really close on 11. From there, hit a really good tee shot on the par five, and you got a couple birdie holes up there and then took advantage of the last par five as well to make it six (under).
“I think, bouncing around from HotelPlanner Tour to here, it’s always a lot of fun when we come out here and get the opportunity to play – (I’m) very thankful.
“I feel good pressure. I definitely enjoy these tournaments a lot. It’s great nerves, you want to have them, you want to play good, so yeah, definitely feels awesome. It doesn’t do any negative or anything. I’m just happy to be here and try and take advantage of it as good as I can.”
France’s Martin Couvra also made a single bogey for his share of the lead while South African Robin Williams remained bogey-free for his.
Couvra graduated from the HotelPlanner Tour last year and has recorded four top-ten finishes so far in his rookie season on the DP World Tour, including a fifth place finish at the Hainan Classic two weeks ago.
“Pretty happy about this first round,” said Couvra. “I played well all day. Just kept smiling on the course, and that’s it.
“I love this place. You have to be good tee to green, that’s the biggest strength of my game. You need to keep the ball on the fairway and hit some good irons.
“My game is pretty good and my confidence too. I just try to keep a good mindset on the golf course.”
England’s Brandon Robinson Thompson closed with a 66 having made a double bogey at the par-4 10th and lies in a share of fourth place at 5-under alongside the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten who made one bogey.
Related: LIV Golfer David Puig receives PGA Championship invite
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHRISTENSEN, Tiger | -6 | 65 |
| | COUVRA, Martin | -6 | 65 |
| | WILLIAMS, Robin | -6 | 65 |
| 4 | ROBINSON THOMPSON, Brandon | -5 | 66 |
| | LUITEN, Joost | -5 | 66 |
| 6 | CLEMENTS, Todd | -4 | 67 |
| | PAUL, Yannik | -4 | 67 |
| | GALE, Daniel | -4 | 67 |
| | DE LEO, Gregorio | -4 | 67 |
| 10 | NIENABER, Wilco | -3 | 68 |
| LINDELL, Oliver | -3 | 68 | |
| | DANTORP, Jens | -3 | 68 |
| | LAPORTA, Francesco | -3 | 68 |
| | WILSON, Andrew | -3 | 68 |
| | SULLIVAN, Andy | -3 | 68 |
| | VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, Nicolai | -3 | 68 |
| | JOHNSTON, Ryggs | -3 | 68 |
| | LINDBERG, Mikael | -3 | 68 |
| | PARRY, John | -3 | 68 |
| | DING, Wenyi | -3 | 68 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | -3 | 68 |
| | MIGLIOZZI, Guido | -3 | 68 |
| | CAMPILLO, Jorge | -3 | 68 |
| 24 | SAGOO, Pavan | -2 | 69 |
| | KJELDSEN, Søren | -2 | 69 |
| GUERRIER, Julien | -2 | 69 | |
| | BEKIRIAN, Jean | -2 | 69 |
| | LANGASQUE, Romain | -2 | 69 |
| | BESARD, Matthis | -2 | 69 |
| | JORDAN, Matthew | -2 | 69 |
| | KATSURAGAWA, Yuto | -2 | 69 |
| | KINHULT, Marcus | -2 | 69 |
| | RUTHERFORD, Jamie | -2 | 69 |
| | FERGUSON, Ewen | -2 | 69 |
| | SÖDERBERG, Sebastian | -2 | 69 |
| | SOUTHGATE, Matthew | -2 | 69 |
| | LIST, Danny | -2 | 69 |
| | LI, Haotong | -2 | 69 |
| | ELVIRA, Nacho | -2 | 69 |
| | FORSSTRÖM, Simon | -2 | 69 |
| | ELVIRA, Manuel | -2 | 69 |
| | BJERREGAARD, Lucas | -2 | 69 |
| | SORDET, Clément | -2 | 69 |
| 44 | BAIRSTOW, Sam | -1 | 70 |
| | BALDWIN, Matthew | -1 | 70 |
| | HILL, Calum | -1 | 70 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | -1 | 70 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | -1 | 70 |
| | ASLAN, İbrahim Tarik (AM) | -1 | 70 |
| | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | -1 | 70 |
| GIRRBACH, Joel | -1 | 70 | |
| | WU, Brandon | -1 | 70 |
| | TARRIO, Santiago | -1 | 70 |
| | MANSELL, Richard | -1 | 70 |
| | SCHMIDT, Ben | -1 | 70 |
| | MOLINARI, Edoardo | -1 | 70 |
| | BRADBURY, Dan | -1 | 70 |
| | GUMBERG, Jordan | -1 | 70 |
| | LACROIX, Frederic | -1 | 70 |
| | BROWN, Hamish | -1 | 70 |
| 61 | KIEFFER, Maximilian | Par | 71 |
| | CANTERO, Ivan | Par | 71 |
| | BRYANT, Davis | Par | 71 |
| | FITZPATRICK, Alex | Par | 71 |
| | SYME, Connor | Par | 71 |
| | KRUYSWIJK, Jacques | Par | 71 |
| | SMITH, Jordan | Par | 71 |
| | SCHNEIDER, Marcel | Par | 71 |
| | FRITTELLI, Dylan | Par | 71 |
| | WOOD, Chris | Par | 71 |
| | NEMECZ, Lukas | Par | 71 |
| | WILSON, Oliver | Par | 71 |
| | COCKERILL, Aaron | Par | 71 |
| | TETAK, Tadeas | Par | 71 |
| | VAN VELZEN, Ryan | Par | 71 |
| | TARREN, Callum | Par | 71 |
| | JARVIS, Casey | Par | 71 |
| | REITAN, Kristoffer | Par | 71 |
| | ERICKSON, Dan | Par | 71 |
| | HARDING, Justin | Par | 71 |
| | AYORA, Angel | Par | 71 |
| | LAGERGREN, Joakim | Par | 71 |
| | BESSELING, Wil | Par | 71 |
| | ACIKALIN, Leon | Par | 71 |
| | ARNAUS, Adri | Par | 71 |
| | HALVORSEN, Andreas | Par | 71 |
| | HUTSBY, Sam | Par | 71 |
| 88 | SHINKWIN, Callum | +1 | 72 |
| | SHAUN, Corey | +1 | 72 |
| | PENGE, Marco | +1 | 72 |
| | KIMSEY, Nathan | +1 | 72 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | +1 | 72 |
| | NAIDOO, Dylan | +1 | 72 |
| | CABRERA BELLO, Rafa | +1 | 72 |
| | DE VRIES, Wouter | +1 | 72 |
| | FISHER, Ross | +1 | 72 |
| | STEINLECHNER, Maximilian | +1 | 72 |
| | HEBERT, Benjamin | +1 | 72 |
| | AMAT, Bastien | +1 | 72 |
| | DEL REY, Alejandro | +1 | 72 |
| 88 | KOBORI, Kazuma | +1 | 72 |
| 102 | GARCIA, Sebastian | +2 | 73 |
| | FAHRBRING, Jens | +2 | 73 |
| | BONETA, Albert | +2 | 73 |
| | CROCKER, Sean | +2 | 73 |
| | ALBERTSE, Louis | +2 | 73 |
| | COUSSAUD, Ugo | +2 | 73 |
| | RAVETTO, David | +2 | 73 |
| | KO, Jeong weon | +2 | 73 |
| | BLOMSTRAND, Christofer | +2 | 73 |
| | OLESEN, Jacob Skov | +2 | 73 |
| | SENIOR, Jack | +2 | 73 |
| | DONALD, Luke | +2 | 73 |
| | VEERMAN, Johannes | +2 | 73 |
| | SCHOTT, Freddy | +2 | 73 |
| | SCHAPER, Jayden | +2 | 73 |
| | PULKKANEN, Tapio | +2 | 73 |
| | FORREST, Grant | +2 | 73 |
| | WHITNELL, Dale | +2 | 73 |
| | LEMKE, Niklas | +2 | 73 |
| 121 | STRYDOM, Ockie | +3 | 74 |
| | KARATAS, Ulas | +3 | 74 |
| | ARMITAGE, Marcus | +3 | 74 |
| | DE BRUYN, Jannik | +3 | 74 |
| | PEPPERELL, Eddie | +3 | 74 |
| | PREMLALL, Yurav | +3 | 74 |
| | KEMALOGLU, Ediz | +3 | 74 |
| | FOLLETT-SMITH, Benjamin | +3 | 74 |
| | KANG, Sung | +3 | 74 |
| | WIEBE, Gunner | +3 | 74 |
| | MORRISON, James | +3 | 74 |
| 133 | DEAN, Joe | +4 | 75 |
| | GERMISHUYS, Deon | +4 | 75 |
| | FRANCES, Alexander | +4 | 75 |
| | YOUNG, Daniel | +4 | 75 |
| | MOSCATEL, Joel | +3 | 74 |
| | PURCELL, Conor | +4 | 75 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | +4 | 75 |
| | JIN, Zihao | +4 | 75 |
| | AHLAWAT, Veer | +4 | 75 |
| | HUIZING, Daan | +4 | 75 |
| 142 | LOMBARD, Zander | +5 | 76 |
| | PINEAU, Pierre | +5 | 76 |
| | LEVY, Alexander | +5 | 76 |
| 145 | BRUN, Julien | +6 | 77 |
| | GARCIA-HEREDIA, Alfredo | +6 | 77 |
| | YAMAC, Taner | +6 | 77 |
| | NOTTEBOOM, Kai (AM) | +6 | 77 |
| | WALTERS, Justin | +6 | 77 |
| | SCHWAB, Matthias | +6 | 77 |
| 151 | CHEGWIDDEN, Zachary | +9 | 80 |
| 152 | KRISTENSEN, Nicolai | +10 | 81 |
| 153 | GÜRDENLI, Can (AM) | +11 | 82 |
| | SHARPSTENE, Matt | +11 | 82 |
| 155 | CEYLAN, Mehmet | +13 | 84 |
| 156 | ANTROPENKO, Elisey (AM) | +17 | 88 |
Simon Bale
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