A brilliant first round of eight under par 64 gave England’s James Hepworth a two shot lead over his compatriot, Ross Fisher, as well as Brian Akstrup of Denmark and Mexico’s Jose Trauwitz, after day one of the Abierto Telefonica Moviles de Guatemala at the Hacienda Nueva Country Club.
Hepworth, who finished second at the Panama Masters last Sunday, is no stranger to winning in Latin America having registered his maiden European Challenge Tour victory in Mexico two years ago at the American Express Los Encinos Open.
The 29 year old is looking for a similar result in Guatemala this week as he looks to recapture the place he won among the Challenge Tour’s top 15 in 2003.
“I got off to a great start,” said Hepworth after signing for a 64. “It was an early start for me but I managed to birdie the first where I holed a ten-footer. Then, at the next, I hit a big drive that went trough the green, a good second shot and chipped in for an eagle three.
“I just played really well today. I was in all the fairways and hit it really close. It’s quite a shot course, so you have a lot of wedges for approach shots and I managed to do that well.”
Akstrup, Fisher and Trauwitz posted the next best scores of the first day at the Hacienda Nueva CC, all three players returning six under par rounds of 66 to stay in touch with Hepworth at the top of the leaderboard.
Fisher, who is undertaking his Rookie season as a professional, was pleased with his start to the tournament and heaped praise on the excellent conditions available to both the Challenge Tour and Tour de las Americas Members at this, the sixth joint sanctioned event of 2005 between the two tours.
“I just played pretty steady today, really,” said Fisher. “I had nine birdies and three bogeys, which were silly ones, but generally played solid. I holed lot of good putts and maybe didn’t drive the ball great, but to be six under and not driving it well is pretty good so I am happy.”
Hepworth is being hotly pursued by a host of European and Latin American names, with
Guatemala’s Alejandro Villavicencio, who turned professional a year ago during this same event, put on a display of intense national pride to join the seven players on five under par – with a further 13 just one more stroke behind Hepworth.
Defending champion, Daniel Vancsik of Argentina, who is bidding to become the first player in history to win the same Challenge Tour event on three consecutive seasons, began his title defence with a solid opening 18 holes, coming home in one under par 71.
