The DP World Tour’s FedEx Open de France got underway on Thursday in prime conditions as 28-year-old Conor Purcell posted a round one to forget with a disappointing eight-over-par.
Portmarnock’s Purcell has quite the mountain to climb if he is to get a result this weekend as needs a strong finish to the end of the season if he is to keep his card for next year.
A bogey on the first set the tone for Purcell as he struggled off the tee. A double bogey on the par-4 fourth really began to put the pressure.
Another bogey came as Purcell closed out the front nine to leave him at four-over at the turn.
It went from bad to worse for Purcell as he bogeyed the 13th and 15th before another sore double bogey on the par-3 18th to see him end the day in 155th.
Purcell struggled immensely with his approach shots, and it didn’t help that his putter was running cold, three putting on a few occasions.
Despair for Purcell but it’s first round delight for England’s Marcus Armitage as the 38-year-old posted an impressive seven-under round to see him two shots clear at the top.
Armitage saw a run of eight birdies in 10 holes to see him climb the leaderboard as the one-time DP World Tour winner looked unstoppable.
His irons accurate and his putter hot, Armitage said “I was hitting it pretty close and just the putts started to drop,” he said. “I think I one-putted every green for that space of holes. Yes, that will work.”
“Once you see a few go in, you get on a run and then you just feel like you’re just moving the putter and picking it out of the hole,” Armitage added.
“You definitely feel it with the putter. Sometimes you get it with your irons and drivers become automatic, but mainly the putter, you get a lot of momentum with it.”
Armitage is 45th in The Race to Dubai rankings going into this week and said: “I’d love to get a Top 20, Top 15 on the Order of Merit and press forward from there. That’s a big goal for me, and this is an important week for The Race to Dubai.”
Home favourite Julien Guerrier and Australian Min Woo Lee are Armitage’s nearest challengers after 18-holes, as both sit on five-under.
A chip-in from a greenside bunker at the ninth was the highlight of Guerrier’s 66, providing one of his six birdies to go with a single bogey at the 12th as he saved par from another bunker at the last.
“Very proud,” Guerrier said. “With the scoring, of course, because the last few weeks, I was playing good, but I didn’t score. And this time, I was playing okay and scoring, the momentum when I hole on nine and 18, two bunker shots, it helps.”
Lee, who started on the back nine like Guerrier, took advantage of his final holes on the front as he closed out with four straight birdies.
He said: “A few putts didn’t drop early (but I) finished off with four birdies in a row which is very, very nice – it was deserving, I guess, with the shots that I was hitting.”
Guerrier’s compatriot Ugo Coussaud was in a large group at four under with Maximilian Kieffer, Marcus Kinhult, Jens Dantorp, Keita Nakajima, Jorge Campillo and Sam Bairstow.
Englishman Dan Bradbury began his title defence with a one-under 70. Spain’s Pablo Ereno, playing in just his fourth DP World Tour event, made a hole in one at the 153-yard seventh hole.
Round two begins at 7:45am local time, with Conor Purcell taking to the tee box at 1pm.
Leaderboard
