Australia’s Adam Scott and former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen both shot seven-under-par 65 to share a one-stroke lead at the star-studded WGC-HSBC Champions in China on Thursday.
Scott finished birdie, birdie, eagle and Oosthuizen stayed bogey-free to come out on top after a low-scoring first round at southern China’s Mission Hills, in which the lead swapped hands several times.
“I don’t think I saw a really low number out there but once you look at the leaderboard and see the guys are firing it up, all of a sudden you started seeing birdies,” Oosthuizen said.
Four-time Major-winner Phil Mickelson also eagled his last hole, the par-five ninth, to lie tied for second place with US Masters champion Bubba Watson, Shane Lowry and Peter Hanson, who won last week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai.
“It was a great way to finish with an eagle. I was hoping just to make birdie on the last hole,” Mickelson said.
“I think the reason I was so calm today was I drove the ball extremely well and hit (nearly) every fairway. I missed one fairway by two yards, the par-five three, and I still made birdie.”
Dustin Johnson and Thailand’s Prom Meesawat were two shots off the lead on five-under-par 67, while England’s Luke Donald and defending champion Martin Kaymer were three off the pace in the $US7 million ($A6.78 million) event.