Dubai: World No. 5 Shanshan Feng birdied the last hole for an opening round of 66 at the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters on Wednesday to share the overnight lead with Carin Koch at six-under par.
The Chinese 2012 Dubai champion opened with four birdies on her outward nine and returned with two birdies either side of a bogey before birdying the last.
Sweden’s Koch, meanwhile, carded five birdies on her front nine before hitting bogeys either side of a hat-trick of birdies on her return. Both players are just a stroke clear of the pack with Order of Merit contender Charley Hull level with Becky Brewerton, Lee-Anne Pace and shock amateur Lee So-Young, all tied for third, after opening with 67.
Defending champion Pornanong Phatlum is two strokes off the lead on 68 at tied for seventh with Caroline Masson and Nikki Campbell.
“I really like this course and I always finish pretty well here,” said Shanshan of the €500,000 (Dh28.82 million) Ladies European Tour (LET) season-ender. “This year my goal is to finish inside the top three and I would say six-under is a really good start and I’m really happy with it.
“I’ve played here twice, won once and finished top five here last year, so top three would make me really happy. I’m not putting myself under too much pressure though. If I give it my best in every shot, I’ll be happy.”
Sweden’s Solheim Cup captain Koch hasn’t won an LET event since 2000 and was therefore surprised to be so far up the leaderboard after day one. “It was very unexpected for me,” she said. “There’s so many good players here, and so much talent that I’m just happy with today. I didn’t hit it that great off the tee so I have to work on that. But if I can keep putting like I putted today, it will be a good week.”
In the rest of the day’s action, Stacey Keating recorded the seventh hole in one of her career on the par three fourth hole using a seven iron from 168-yards. But she’s still four shots off the lead tied for 14th after otherwise cancelling out two birdies with bogeys on either nine for 70.
Tiger Woods’ niece Cheyenne, meanwhile, is level with Keating after recovering from an opening bogey with two outward birdies and another lone birdie on her return.
Celine Herbin was the day’s only casualty withdrawing with cramp in her legs, but not before carding a 10 over par round of 82. She was eight over par on her front nine after rounding off three outward bogies with a quintuple fault on her ninth hole, before a birdie, bogey and double bogey combination on the return.