Matthew Baldwin leads the first round at the Volvo China Open
Matthew Baldwin played a bogey-free round, as he grabbed an early lead against his rivals at the Volvo China Open, on Thursday.
The 26-year-old English professional golf player is doing well at the European Tour and OneAsia Tour co-sanctioned event, being staged at the Binhai Lake Golf Club in Tianjin, China.
“It was very good today so I am happy with that," said Baldwin.
He kicked off the tournament by making an early birdie on the very first hole of the tournament. He shot three consecutive pars and scored three more birdies on the 5th, 7th and 9th hole.
This was an amazing start and he competed well against the other field members. Scoring four impressive under par strokes on the front nine holes of the course is amazing.
He continued to show a good performance and made two long yards consecutive birdies on the 10th and 11th hole. He then shot five pars and was able to score one more birdie on the 17th hole.
He reached the top of the leaderboard after making 7-under 65 in the first round of the Volvo China Open. His tremendous performance was far superior compared with most of his rivals.
"The conditions were a lot calmer when I played then when we played a practice round early in the week," Baldwin said.
"Then, I thought shooting four 72s around this course would be very good. But they did move some of the tees forward and some of the pins were very generous, which helped the score".
In 2012, Baldwin has played seven tournaments at the European Tour so far. His best finish of the year was recorded at the Africa Open, as he finished tied for the 10th position and also scored a 64 in the second round there.
He delivered his second best score in China, soon after losing the cut at the Maybank Malaysian Open in the last week.
Since turning professional in 2008, he has won only one professional title at the Challenge Tour in 2011. He is striving and aiming to record his debut victory at the European Tour.
Analysts said that Baldwin is headed in the right direction. They said that he can further improve his position if he holds his nerve and makes sensible putts.
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