Graeme Storm leads the European Tour’s KLM Open
Graeme Storm surged to the top of the leaderboard after round one of the KLM Open. A superb seven-under par round of 63 left him two shots clear of a group of three players, Martin Kaymer, Fabrizio Zanotti and Raphaël Jacquelin.
The Englishman, whose only European Tour victory came in the Open de France ALSTOM, in the year 2007, played incredibly and recorded seven birdies without suffering a single bogey all day long.
His first birdie came on the fifth hole before reaching the turn in three-under par, thanks to another two birdies on the next three holes, at the Hіlversumsche Golf Club.
He then mirrored the last three-hole performance on the front nine, by birdying the 11th and 12th hole on the back nine. The Hartlepool native finished it off in style with another two birdies on the 16th and 18th hole.
“I made the birdies when I gave myself the chances and got up and down when I missed the greens,” he said.
According to him, the key to success in the tournament will be hitting the ball straight and landing the ball on the fairways. Otherwise, it will become difficult to post good scores, especially when the roughs are really thick.
He currently ranks 114th in The Race to Dubai and desperately needs a strong finish, in order to retain his European Tour card for the 2013 golf season.
Storm lost his grandfather when he was making preparations for this year’s BMW International Open in June and, since then, he has been endeavouring to stabilise himself.
"I lost my grandfather on the Wednesday morning of Germany and since then I have really struggled,” he recalled. “I kind of kept it to myself what happened but it hit me really hard”.
He is now happy with the way he played in the Netherlands and wants to finish it on a high note on the weekend.
"You can get punished round here but I played the best I have probably played all year”, he said. “I'm just happy to get a round like that under my belt after recent months”.
Tags: