Craig Hancock leads the BMW New Zealand Open after the first round
Craig Hancock fired a four-under par 68 in the opening round of the BMW New Zealand Open, to take a two-stroke lead over Kristopher Mueck and Ryan Fox, on Thursday, November 22, 2012.
The tournament is being played at the Clearwater Resort in Christchurch, featuring some of the prominent names on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
Hancock, who plies his trade on the OneAsia Tour, made it into the tournament through a strong finish at the Australian Masters last week – he tied for the 14th position.
The Australian made use of the calm morning conditions and carded birdies on the third, sixth and the seventh hole to reach the turn in three-under.
He then added another two shots to his scorecard on the 11th and the 12th hole, prior to the strong winds started blowing on the venue course.
The 28-year-old held on well when the winds came up, and conceded only one bogey to finish the day on top of the leaderboard.
"I struggled a little bit early on but fought the wind towards the end," Hancock said. “It’s fine playing in the wind, you just have to concentrate harder. You probably play a little bit better in the breeze because you are not so relaxed. The first few
holes there was no wind and it was just like hit it anywhere”.
Talking to the reporters after finishing his round, Hancock revealed that his plan for the opening round was to score an even-par score.
According to him, the venue course is one of the toughest golf courses in the region. Therefore, it was a little difficult to create birdie chances.
“Even par was my goal for today, I would have taken four even-pars or four 1-unders at this tournament. It is a pretty tough golf course so 4-under today is really good,” he said.
Despite posting a decent score on day one, the Australian believes that it will be a difficult task to beat the New Zealanders participating in the tournament.
Therefore, he will have to maintain his consistency in the remaining three rounds, in a bid to record the maiden PGA Tour of Australasia victory of his career.
Fox, who started off on the back nine of the course, was five-under for the round through the first 11 holes that he played, thanks to his six birdies against a lone bogey.
However, he failed to hold on to his game after the winds started blowing on the course. He faltered on the third hole, his twelfth, for a double bogey, and followed that with a bogey on the sixth hole.
At the end of the day, he found himself sharing the second spot with Mueck, who carded four birdies and a sparkling eagle against four bogeys.
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