Everything you need to know from day one at Green Eagle Golf Courses.
Detry dominated, Wu enjoyed an early start, fans were back and the locals were having fun in round one of the 2021 Porsche European Open.
Here is everything you need to know from Saturday (yes, Saturday) in Hamburg.
Detry does the business
Could this be the week that Thomas Detry finally breaks his European Tour duck? The Belgian has been an incredibly consistent performer since graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 2016 but has yet to win an individual event, with three second places, including two last year. An opening 68 handed him a one shot lead in Germany and he revealed he was relishing the tough test of a 7,603-yard layout. "It’s completely different, it’s very Major," he said. "I played the US PGA two weeks ago and it’s a similar approach, you have to drive it on the fairway otherwise it's really penalising. In a way that’s golf that suits me a bit more, I tend to struggle on easy courses where you’re forced to make birdies otherwise you’re losing ground and it’s a completely different approach on this golf course."
One par. Home in 29 ✍️@tomdetry takes the early lead in Germany.#PEO2021 | @Workday
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 5, 2021
Wu's the daddy
Wu Ashun will have got used to early starts after a recent new arrival in the family and he fired an excellent 69 after going out in the first group of the day to put himself right in contention. The Chinese got his week under way at 7.30am in the company of Min Woo Lee and carded four birdies and a single bogey to get to three under. After a bright start to the season, Wu missed almost two months of European Tour action as a new baby and quarantine restrictions kept him at home and he admits the 2021 Race to Dubai has been a logistical challenge. "It’s tough for me this year because I have a baby, four months old," he said. "After that I’ve been back to China and need to quarantine too. I had to skip a couple of tournaments and then come back to play but I was strong and got ready to compete in tournaments again."
Fans are back!
The 2019 Portugal Masters was memorable for many reasons. Steven Brown entered the week needing a top three to keep his card and took home the trophy, while Justin Walters overcame the loss of a parent to keep his card at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course for the second time in six years. One thing that we never thought we would remember that week for when we left the Algarve was that it would be the last event on European soil with spectators for 20 months. It has been a long and difficult time due to the Covid-19 pandemic but this week we have lined fairways and it is incredible to have spectators once again.
Family affair for Kaymer
With regular caddie Craig 'Wee Man' Connelly not here this week, home favourite Martin Kaymer has his brother Philip on the bag. After Phil Mickelson won the US PGA Championship with brother Tim on the bag, could we have two teams of brothers lifting European Tour trophies in three weeks?
Schmid shows his colours
Stand aside Ian Poulter. Poults is famous for Union Flag trousers but local amateur Matthias Schmid was trying to give him a run on Saturday with a German flag inspired shirt. Anyone else getting an Italia 90 vibe? We like it Matthias.
