Tim Sluiter carded an impressive six under par round of 66 in the opening round of the Kazakhstan Open to move to within three shots of the lead, as he looks to continue the recent run of Dutch success on the top two tiers of European golf.
After Joost Luiten’s glorious home win at the KLM Open and Daan Huizing’s second consecutive Challenge Tour win at the Kharkov Superior Cup, Sluiter says that he has been inspired by his two compatriots this week as he chases a maiden title at the lucrative event at Nurtau Golf Club, Almaty.
He was certainly in inspired form as the 24 year old carded eight birdies, including a run of four in a row from the par five 13th, with a double-bogey at the third hole proving the only blotch on an otherwise flawless card.
“I was saying last week on Twitter that it inspires every Dutch guy when two players are doing well and you know them well, so it’s great,” he said.
“Daan’s win is great for The Netherlands and obviously for him personally. It’s his second win in a row and he is playing great. He knows that he will be playing on The European Tour next year and that’s where he should be with the game that he is playing. It’s where he belongs and hopefully I can be right there with him at the end of the year.
“It was great playing from me today,” he continued. “My iron shots were amazing and I have no driver in the bag this week, so I have a lot of irons off the tee and I'm hitting them really well.
“Maybe I'm a little further back from the tee but I don’t need my driver so I'm very pleased with that decision and I could not have started any better. I made four birdies in a row and holed a few long putts, it was really good.
“I made one really huge one from about 60 feet which was lucky to be honest because it really hit the back of the hole and went in. I also hit a great one on 16 downhill so I got a few long ones.”
Jeppe Huldahl, meanwhile, carded a spectacular course-record nine under par round of 63 to take a two shot lead over American Chan Kim in Almaty. The Dane fired three eagles and four birdies in a stunning round over a course which has been earmarked by many players present this week as one of the most difficult all season.
