Ryan Fox finished his opening round with a flourish to sit alongside Thorbjørn Olesen at the top of the leaderboard after the first day of the Betfred British Masters.
Morning starter Olesen set the early clubhouse target at six under par after carding six birdies and no bogeys in his 66 at The Belfry.
It had looked as though no one would catch the Dane at the summit until Fox reeled off three closing birdies to sign for a 66, which included seven birdies and one bogey.
Fox’s round contained some exceptional shots but he saved the best for last, holing from 35 feet on the 18th green for an unlikely birdie.
German Hurly Long, China’s Wu Ashun and Scot Richie Ramsay were one shot behind the co-leaders on five under.
South Africans Brandon Stone and Justin Walters both shot four under.
New Zealand’s Fox picked up shots at the 1st and 3rd holes before carding his only bogey of the day on the 6th.
He turned in 34 courtesy of another birdie at the 9th, and drained a monster birdie putt on the 12th green to jump to three under.
The 35-year-old then caught fire as his round neared its conclusion, holing from four feet for birdie at the 16th and getting another from a similar distance on the next hole.
Fox gave himself work to do on the last after sending his second shot to 35 feet, but he coolly slotted in his lengthy putt to earn a share of the lead.
“I feel like if you drive it well around here you get quite a lot of opportunities,” said Fox. “You can hit a lot of wedges in and there’s probably four or five holes you’ve really got to play nice and safe – make your par.
“Six definitely, eight and nine can sneak up on you a little bit, 12 is hard and obviously 18 is a really strong hole, so if you can get through those holes without any damage you can kind of attack the rest of the golf course, and I managed to do that pretty well.
“I’ve missed most of my drives in the right place, which is a good thing to do. I didn’t hit a lot of fairways but I was just off on a lot and the rough’s a little patchy this week … so you can kind of get away with it.
“It’s a fun golf course to play. I grew up on this kind of grass as well, so it fits quite nicely in my head. I kind of know what it’s going to do and how it’s going to react. Just go out and try and hit a couple of shots, and I did that pretty well.”
Olesen opened his round with a birdie at the 10th before making further gains at the 13th and 15th to turn in 33 blows.
After getting back-to-back birdies at the 3rd and 4th to jump to five under, the 32-year-old rolled in his birdie putt from 13 feet at the tricky 8th before getting up and down for a par at the 9th to keep his card clean.
Olesen won the most recent of his five DP World Tour titles in 2018 – the year he represented Europe in the Ryder Cup – and he is aiming to return to the winner’s circle this year.
– Report from DP World Tour website
