Teenager Dominic Foos fired a course record 65 to lead by one shot after the first round of the GANT Open at Turku’s Aura GC on six under par.
The German 17 year old did not drop a shot all round, eagling the 16th, his seventh hole, as he remained in front of two local players, Jonas Haglund and Roope Kakko, who is fresh from his maiden European Tour victory at the Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI.
Foos has enjoyed a glittering junior career, winning 14 tournaments and already competing several times on both The European and Challenge Tours, and he believes his game is in the right shape to compete this week.
“I’m definitely feeling good about everything right now,” he said. “I had two weeks break before this and did some practice and I’m feeling like my game is in a good place right now.
I don't know what I can achieve - everything in my game is coming together now so hopefully that remains the case through the weekend
“I don’t know what I can achieve this week. I’ll just play my game and we’ll see where that ends up, but everything is coming together now so hopefully that remains the case through the weekend.
“I had a great time out there. It was pretty cold first thing and pretty windy too which was a surprise, last night it looked like it was going to be perfect.
“I played well from the very start. I hit pretty much all the fairways, all the greens and putted really well, so I’m really pleased with how I scored today.
“It’s a beautiful place to play golf. In the practice rounds I though it looked like a really good course and it played really well today.
“It’s not that long but it’s pretty tight and the rough is very thick, so you need to be precise off the tee, and the greens are just perfect, so it’s a great course for a championship like this.”
Finnish eyes will inevitably be drawn to the pair of Finns on five under par, especially 33 year old Kakko, a Challenge Tour graduate from 2013, who credited a hot putter for a round that featured eight birdies.
“I putted off the charts, I made everything today,” he said. “My playing partners were laughing at the end of the round about the putting display I’d put on!
“I didn’t play too well, I was driving it poorly at the beginning, but I got it going a bit better on the back nine and was able to score well.
“The course was perfect today, and I really like how it’s different to a lot of the modern courses where you can just slash at it with your driver and get away with it. Here you really have to think and position your golf ball well, so I really enjoy the challenge.
“It’s a perfect start, and it’s great to hear there’s another Finn up there alongside me, but I have to worry about my own stuff from now on, try to get four decent rounds in and see what happens.”
Haglund knows the course well from annual events here on the Nordic League, where he currently plies his trade, though his ambitions are to climb the ranks onto the Challenge Tour and, ultimately, The European Tour.
Behind them are a clutch of players on four under par, including Belgian Christopher Mivis, who was forced to play with a borrowed set of clubs after strikes in his home country meant his own were lost.
The highest-ranked player in the Road to Oman Rankings in the field, third placed Rhys Davies, endured a difficult day, starting with two double bogeys before eventually posting a score of two over par.
