David Horsey goes on birdie blitz for Saudi International lead

about 3 years in The Irish Times

David Horsey fired a nine-under-par 61 for a one-shot lead over Scot Stephen Gallacher after the opening round of the European Tour’s Saudi International on Thursday.
Horsey started slowly at the Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, before hitting form on the back nine with seven birdies - including five in a row just after the turn - to take his tally for the day to nine.
“It’s a shock actually. I’ve been playing rubbish the last couple weeks. Didn’t feel like I controlled my ball the first two events,” Horsey said.
“I had a conversation with a pal back home last night, talking a few things through and he suggested something that I work on away from the tournament.
“Knowing me, I thought, well, can’t get any worse, so I may as well try it and here we are. It’s really just how my body is moving - quite sort of technical really. It’s nice to have a feel you can wake up and pick up straight away.”
Former Ryder Cup player Gallacher shot 10 birdies, but bogeys on the 12th and 18th held him back.
“I actually hit it really close to the pin which was good, and managed to hole those sort of 10-foot putts for birdie I had,” Gallacher, who has won two of his four European Tour titles in the Middle East, said.
“It was one of those just go on a roll and kept knocking them in.”
World number one Dustin Johnson was three-under after a below-par round of 67, while 2020 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was tied for fourth.
Five-times major winner Phil Mickelson had a round to forget, carding 68 for a share of 31st place.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell and Cormac Sharvin all shot level par opening rounds, leaving them nine shots off the lead. Paul Dunne is three over.
Collated first round scores and totals (UK unless stated, Par 70):
61 David Horsey
62 Stephen Gallacher
64 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
65 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Thomas Pieters (Bel), Ryan Fox (Nzl), Haotong Li (Chn), Calum Hill
66 Laurie Canter, George Coetzee (Rsa), Andy Sullivan, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry)
67 Dustin Johnson (USA), Tyrrell Hatton, Victor Perez (Fra), Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Danny Willett, Antoine Rozner (Fra), Kurt Kitayama (USA), Joost Luiten (Ned), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Thomas Detry (Bel), Jeff Winther (Den), James Morrison
68 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau (USA), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Justin Rose, Ross McGowan, Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Steven Brown, Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Justin Harding (Rsa), Ashun Wu (Chn), Phil Mickelson (USA), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Oliver Wilson, Chris Paisley, Sean Crocker (USA), Justin Walters (Rsa), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
69 Patrick Reed (USA), Paul Casey, Kevin Na (USA), Aaron Rai, Rafael Cabrera (Spa), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), John Catlin (USA), Romain Langasque (Fra), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Shergo Al Kurdi (Jor), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Richard Sterne (Rsa), Adria Arnaus (Spa), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Julian Suri (USA), Ross Fisher, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Grant Forrest, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Joel Stalter (Fra)
70 Jason Kokrak (USA), Shane Lowry (Irl), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Graeme McDowell (Irl), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), David Law, David Lipsky (USA), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Harry Hall, Cormac Sharvin (Irl), Matthew Southgate, Andrew Johnston, David Drysdale, Ashley Chesters, Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Francesco Laporta (Ita)
71 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Robert MacIntyre, Scott Hend (Aus), Paul Waring, Alexander Levy (Fra), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Othman Almulla (Sau), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Jordan Smith, Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Gavin Green (Mal), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), David Howell
72 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Renato Paratore (Ita), Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Eduard Rousaud (Spa), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Oliver Fisher, Jamie Donaldson
73 Matt Wallace, Chris Wood, Sami Valimaki (Fin), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Richard McEvoy, Paul Dunne (Irl), Richie Ramsay, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin)
74 Marc Warren, Andrea Pavan (Ita), Ernie Els (Rsa), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Jayden Schaper (Rsa), Scott Jamieson
75 Jason Scrivener (Aus), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
76 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
77 Faisal Alsalhab (Sau)
80 Saud Al Sharif (Sau)

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