Davies and Garrido set pace in Malaysia

Welshman Rhys Davies carded a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 to share a one-shot lead with Spain’s Ignacio Garrido midway through the first round of the Maybank Malaysian Open today.

Challenge Tour graduate Davies took advantage of the scoring chances on the much-easier front nine at the newly-refurbished Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club with five birdies before picking up two further gains on the testing return trip to set an imposing first-round mark alongside Garrido.

Davies missed a makeable birdie putt at the first but soon made amends as a nine iron to two feet at the second was quickly followed by a two-putt conversion a hole later.

And with a bonus of holing out from off the green at the fifth to complete a hat-trick of birdies, Davies was flourishing in the energy-sapping humidity.

He started the back nine with a sixth birdie of the day, but did have to wait until the 17th for his seventh and final gain to arrive to join Garrido in a share of the clubhouse lead.

Garrido unexpectedly putted his way to the top of the leaderboard after dropping just one shot on his opening circuit to edge ahead of in-form Asian number one Thongchai Jaidee and South Korea’s Kim Dae-hyun.

The highlight of the 1997 Ryder Cup winner’s round was a 35-foot eagle putt at just his third hole of the day, when admittedly he was just attempting to navigate the large tier between himself and the hole, while the two-time winner was also surprised to see several putts of 15-20 feet drop to boost his opening tally.

KJ Choi dropped his only shot of the day at the last to card a five-under-par 67 alongside Spain’s Alejandro Canizares, Dane Mark Haastrup and England’s Mark Foster.