Australian Masters, Mathew Guyatt the surprising leader after 1st Round

 

 

Mathew Guyatt/ Getty Images

Mathew Guyatt is the surprising first round leader of the Australian Masters tournament at the conclusion of play on day one. Mathew, from Queensland,  upstaged his more fancied rivals to claim the outright lead by two shots from the big names chasing him down, by firing a superb -7 under par, 65. Another Aussie, Adam Scott , Ian Poulter from England and New Zealand’s Michael Hendry are the players who are just two shots in arrears of  the 57 year-old Mathew on the par 72 Kingston Heath Golf Club lay-out. Naturally t he score board is full of Australians, out of the top forty places there is only one Englishman, Poulter, Graeme McDowell from Northern Ireland, three Kiwi’s and a Frenchman, Victor Riu, to interrupt the flow of Aussie flags on the board.

Lone Englishman Ian Poulter/Getty Images

There are a whole host of players tied in fifth place at -4 under par, which includes the Aussie amateur Jake Higginbottom and Kalem Richardson who is in his first full year as a professional has rarely been near the top of the leaderboard before, but is hoping for better things to come. Kalem said of his start to this tournament;

“I set my goals pretty high and my goals are always towards the end of the week now, I know I can start tournaments well. Now it is all about putting four rounds together, I’m ahead of where I thought I would be sitting after the first round and I hope I keep playing well. I’ve played around here a fair few times, so that was really helpful. The front nine I was just hitting it really well and on the back nine I made some more putts, I’m feeling pretty good about my game.”

Kalem will have a tough task on his hands if he is to win here, with the likes of Adam Scott and the inform Ian Poulter keen to add another victory to their bulging CV”s.