Jason Palmer finished day one of The Foshan Open in China on the European Challenge Tour on seven under par after shooting a bogey free round that included five birdies and an eagle.
Joined on that score by Portuguese professional and EMC Roma Challenge Open 2014 winner Ricardo Gouveia, Jason had one of his best opening rounds of the season, which surprised the Kirby Muxloe player as the day didn’t get off to the best start on the range he commented.
“I’m chuffed with that today,” said the 30 year old. “I’ve kind of struggled so far this year with my first round scoring, so it is nice to get off to a flying start. It was strange as I had a terrible warm up session, and often that’s the way, you then go out without any expectations and I was lucky I hit a good first tee shot and away I went.
“We’ve played a few courses lately that have been pretty wide open and more suited to the bombers, whereas I’m not the longest hitter – I’m probably one of the shortest out here – but it is more about precision into the greens with the way the slopes are. “You need to control your distance because you are better off having ten feet up the hill than six feet down it sometimes because the greens are really tricky. I really like the course though, it is a great set up.
“I’m just delighted to still be out here minimum for next year, but at 51st on the Rankings, I’m really trying to give it everything. I’m not into Dubai yet so I want to try and get in there, and that would be a bonus, but I am just enjoying it.
“If I can keep playing like that, then I’m sure I’ll do OK, but it is very much a case of taking it one step at a time. You could easily turn up tomorrow and not have a golf swing, which has been the way for me this season. Hopefully I’ll swing how I did today though and I can shoot some good scores.”
The first goal of the week for the Champions of Golf professional was to make the cut in China having successfully made it the previous week as the final run in to the season ending finale in Dubai draws ever closer. He has certainly put himself in a strong position to do that and will be hoping to reinforce his place atop the leaderboard with even more birdies in his second round on Friday.
You can follow all the live action and Jason’s scoring through the European Challenge Tour website at: