Matthew Jordan, a 23-year-old invitee, shot a stunning bogeyfree 63 to open up a two-shot lead on the opening day at the British Masters yesterday.  Tournament host Tommy Fleetwood, who won the pre-event Hero Challenge, also got off to a fine start with a 68, but was still five behind young Jordan, who is a member of nearby Links course, Royal Hoylake.
Between Jordan and Fleetwood, there was a bunch of players. Swede Marcus Kinhult, another good Links-playing youngster, shot 65 and three players, including the battle-scarred 46-year-old veteran Lee Westwood were at six-under each. Westwood had six more holes to play.
“I’ve known him for a long time, we all know what he’s capable of,” said Fleetwood. “That’s a tremendous first round and I think it will be good for him now. I’ve seen some of his scores and he’s not played as well as I know he wants to this year, but when you’re first turning pro it’s different and now the experience being at the top of the leaderboard for a few days will be really, really good.”
Jordan, who had his first Top-10 finish as a pro two weeks ago in Turkey in the Challenge, has played well at Links courses like the Lytham and St Andrews, where he has amateur wins. Jordan started birdie-birdie and had five in first eight and then there were more on 10th, 11th, 13th and 15th, at which point he was nine-under with three to go. Just as a 60 appeared on the horizon birdies dried up.
“You never quite expect it,” Jordan said. “I knew I had been playing quite well and just from the get-go it started perfectly and from then on I just kept it going. I just tried to shoot as low as I could because I thought the guys out there, they are good as well. You start to realise you’re doing quite well because more people turn up and you see a couple of cameras. I was nervous maybe for a couple of holes, like around 11 and 12, and then I settled back into it which was strange.”
Fleetwood played and won the Hero Challenge and then launched his Academy. Next week, he is also due to play the PGA at Bethpage as he searches for his maiden Major. Yesterday, he had an eagle on second, his 11th. He had three other birdies and one bogey on sixth.