Hot putter sends McGrane to head of affairs at Ballantine’s

DAMIEN McGRANE claimed the first-day lead at the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea with a six-under-par round of 66 yesterday.

The Meath man carded eight birdies and two bogeys to lead by a shot from Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, England’s Richard Finch and home favourite Park Sang-hyun.

McGrane has just one previous European Tour title to his name — the 2008 Volvo China Open — but enjoyed a good round with birdies going out on the 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th and at the second, third, sixth and eighth coming home.

“I made plenty of birdies and I putted nicely,” McGrane said. “I holed everything inside 15 feet. I made two bogeys which were out of nowhere really but that’s golf I suppose.

“The fairways are generous and, just like last week, you make birdies on day one and keep going till the end of the tournament. That’s what I started off doing, so hopefully I’ll do it at end of the tournament.”

Finch enjoyed five birdies in a bogey-free round and was pleased with his progress.

He said: “Today I feel like I got up out of the right side of the bed and a few things went my way.

“When I hit putts too hard, and I’m thinking, ‘please hit the hole’, it hit the hole and disappeared. That’s a two-shot swing basically.

“You do need that little bit of luck and for things to go your way. Hopefully I still have a bit left in the tank but certainly took advantage today.”

Lee Westwood double-bogeyed the final hole to end six shots behind McGrane.

Westwood, who returned to the top of the world rankings following his victory at the Indonesian Masters last week, made a solid start before ending with a six at the par-four ninth.

Aguilar had four birdies in an outward 32 and one more on the way home.

“You never know until the fat lady sings,” he said. “It’s just the beginning of the round — you can lose the tournament today, you can’t win it.

“We are just getting ourselves in position to be in contention. I came off to a pretty hot start.

“I made a couple of long putts that really helped, and I could really feel the tension, especially coming into the last couple of holes, but really happy with the round.”