Asian Tour: Pereira eagle propels him into share of lead at St Andrews Bay Championship; Hong Kong trio have mixed day
- Mito Pereira among group of six players to shoot 6-under-par 66 on opening day of International Series event
- Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho and Leon D’Silva card matching rounds of 71, while Matthew Cheung struggled to a 77
Mito Pereira chipped in for eagle on 18 to finish with a six-under-par 66 at the St Andrews Bay Championship, joining the top of a congested leaderboard at the International Series event in Scotland.
On a relatively calm day in the home of golf, Spainard David Puig, Indians Anirban Lahiri and Veer Ahlawat, South African Jaco Ahlers, and Andrew Dodt from Australia, all matched that score at the Fairmont St Andrews course.
Another eight players are two shots further back and after romping to a seven-shot win in Newcastle last week, order of merit leader Andy Ogletree made a more sedate start, ending his opening round on two under.
The three Hongkongers playing this week had mixed days. Taichi Kho and Leon D’Silva carded matching 71s, while Matthew Cheung struggled to a five-over 77. He at least was in good company, with Sergio Garcia collapsing from three under to finish alongside Cheung well down the field.
One of several LIV players competing this week, Pereira is taking part in an Asian Tour event for just the third time this season, after taking part in the Saudi International and the first International Series event of the year in Oman the following week.
“Today it was not that windy, at some point it started to blow a lot, I would say it’s the average low wind here,” he said. “I hope it stays this way.
