Welsh dragons on the double at Madrid Masters
With some players yet to tee off there's no guarantee that Welshmen Jamie Donaldson and Rhys Davies will retain their joint clubhouse lead at the first round of the Madrid Masters - but with seven birdies each and not a single dropped shot between them, each player nevertheless enjoyed a fine round of golf earlier today.
Donaldson started with a birdie on the tenth hole, having begun his round on the back nine. Further birdies followed on the 17th and 18th, and with another four coming over the space of six holes on the front nine the 34-year-old from Pontypridd came home seven-under-par 65 to top the leaderboard.
It wasn't long before he was joined at the top by the 24-year-old Davies, who had also started on the 10th hole, racking up three birdies on the back nine with a further four on the home straight. Donaldson is yet to win on the European Tour, with Davies having clinched his first victory earlier this season when he won the Trophée Hassan II.
The pair currently lie one stroke ahead of Ireland's Paul McGinley, who eagled the 16th to go six-under-par; amongst the players currently tied for fourth place on five-under is another Welshman, Philip Price, as well as Italy's Francesco Molinari.
The highest ranked English players are Richard Finch and Ross McGowan, both tied for the 10th spot on four-under. Fredrik Andersson Hed, the Swede who was pipped by Simon Khan by one shot at last week's BMW PGA Championship, had a slow start here, coming home one-under par after three bogeys and a double on the 15th.
Sergio Garcia is hoping to make a case for inclusion on the Ryder Cup team, and had only played up to the fourth at the time of writing; the Spaniard is currently one-over par, having bogeyed the fourth.
Another likely Ryder Cup contender, Germany's Martin Kaymer, was level after three, while England's Luke Donald, the highest ranked player in the competition, is also one-over after the first four, having bogeyed the 1st.
Former US Open winner Michael Campbell had a disastrous round, the New Zealander finishing at the foot of the leaderboard, eight-over-par in a round that that started with a double bogey on the very first hole and included a quadruple bogey on the 3rd.
Campbell was returning to play for the first time since his performance at this year's Masters, where he missed the cut - and in fact the player is yet to make a cut in any tournament since October, and is currently ranked 650th in the world. But the 41-year-old claimed to be content with his progress today, saying he was suffering from an injury and that under the circumstances he "managed to play some decent stuff." Onwards and upwards, Mike.
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