McDowell two shots back in Shanghai
Graeme McDowell is two shots off the lead after hitting a first-round 67 at the BMW Masters in Shanghai on Thursday.
McDowell topped the six European Ryder Cup players in the field with a bogey-free round on Lake Malaren’s Masters Course that left him fifth and contained three straight birdies from the 11th.
“I got here Tuesday morning and haven’t really been feeling my best the last couple of days,” said McDowell.
“It’s the first sort of long trip of the year for me and the body took a little bit of time to catch up. Thankfully I felt much, much better this morning and the energy level has felt good.”
France’s Alexander Levy hit five straight birdies in the middle of his round to finished with a seven-under 65 and a first-round lead.
Levy began the birdie run on the par-four ninth. He won the Volvo China Open in Shenzhen in April for his first European Tour title and took the rain-shortened Portugal Masters this month, becoming the first Frenchman to win two events in a single season on the European Tour.
“My golf game is very good as I was bogey-free in missing only one fairway and I’m still aggressive on the golf course and I like to play this golf, so I need to be thinking this way for the rest of the week,” Levy said. “I just like playing in China and, for me, this golf course is pretty much the same as in Shenzhen where there is a lot of water and you play target golf.”
Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts was a stroke back along with Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and France’s Romain Wattel.
The tournament opens the four-event Final Series. The World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions is next week, also in Shanghai, followed by the Turkish Airlines Open and World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Wattel played his last 15 holes with a crack in his driver and did not know the rules allowed him to replace the damaged club.
“Given the length of this course, and also with the rain falling, you really need the driver so I was lucky not to have any real trouble using the club,” Wattel said.
Wattel indicated he will replace the driver and use one offered to him by fellow Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, who was first reserve for the event but did not tee up.
Colsaerts included in his bag an old 2 iron that he used to capture the 2011 Volvo China Open and the 2012 World Match Play Championship in Spain. He is back playing after taking a week off at Hua Hin in Thailand, where he said he underwent a “cleansing” ceremony undertaken by local Buddhist monks.
Six players, including Ryder Cup players Jamie Donaldson, Thomas Bjorn and recent Alfred Dunhill Links champion Oliver Wilson, shared sixth place on four under.
Justin Rose, one of Europe’s stars at the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, recovered from a triple-bogey eight on the fourth hole of his round, when he found water twice – first with a 3 iron and then further up the fairway with a 5 iron. He finished on level-par 72.
“I can’t remember the last time I shot an eight as I am not a big numbers guy,” Rose said.
“Really,” he added, “I was just one swing away from shooting four under par.”
Italy’s Edoardo Molinari aced the par-three 13th – his fourth hole – with a 4 iron from 208 yards. The organisers are offering a BMW i8 sports sedan for a hole-in-one on the 17th hole, but Molinari had to settle for a miniature model along with a bottle of champagne.
“I now have a small car and maybe I can win the big one,” he said.
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