Australian Peter O’Malley was one of four players tied for the first-round lead in ideal conditions at the BMW International Open on Thursday.
O’Malley, 43 next week, set the six-under 66 target, matched by Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, South African Anton Haig and Argentine Rafa Echinique.
The quartet were a stroke ahead of another Argentine, Daniel Vancsik, another South African, Thomas Aiken, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Gonnet and two Britons, David Lynn and Mark Foster.
O’Malley is approaching his 400th European Tour event in his 20th year—as long as this week’s event has run—but the Sydney man, looking for a fourth tour title seven years after claiming his third, said his ambitions remained high.
“I’ve never had any injury dramas and every year I want to get out there and have a win,” O’Malley told reporters.
“These are the weeks now that you want to play good golf. I especially want to avoid qualification for the (British) Open, so that is the key to me raising my game this week.”
Germany’s highest profile players, 50-year-old Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer, 23, played together and the youngster had the better day, carding a 68 to Langer’s 70 to nestle into a group a further shot off the pace.
Langer was disappointed to bogey their ninth and last hole, particularly as Munich is the only German European Tour event he has never won in a career of 42 tour successes.
“The clock is ticking and I don’t think I’ll win this at 60, so I’m going to have to do it soon,” Langer, who finished second in the event last year, told reporters.
Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez successfully overcame jet-lag following his sixth-placed finish in the U.S. Open last week to lie three shots off the lead in the morning.
Lynn moved a stroke ahead of the top four in the afternoon but the Briton putted off the green into the lake at the sixth, his 15th hole for a double-bogey.
Former winner John Daly had two double-bogeys, his second coming at the 16th bizarrely, with an action replay of an incident in last year’s Mercedes Masters in Cologne.
Daly found the lake with his approach, took a penalty and then had to place his ball because it would not settle on the bank. After placing it, his ball then rolled into the water. Instead of taking another penalty shot Daly opted to play out from the hazard but could not avoid a six which contributed to a round of 72.
Briton Paul Casey’s ball was another to find a watery grave on 16. Casey was only two shots off the lead playing the hole but also double-bogeyed and finished with a round of 70.
BMW International Open Scores
66 Anton Haig (Rsa), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Peter O'Malley (Aus)
67 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), David Lynn, Mark Foster, Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
68 Alexander Noren (Swe), Benn Barham, Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Graeme Storm, Andrew McLardy (Rsa)
69 Retief Goosen (Rsa), Anders Hansen (Den), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), David Howell, Tino Schuster (Ger), Matthew Millar (Aus), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Carl Suneson (Spa), Iain Pyman, Richard Finch, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Thomas Levet (Fra)
70 Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Ross Fisher, Pelle Edberg (Swe), John Bickerton, Simon Wakefield, Pedro Linhart (Spa), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Bernhard Langer (Ger), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Colin Montgomerie, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Paul Casey, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Barry Lane
71 Francesco Molinari (Ita), James Kingston (Rsa), David Griffiths, Oliver Fisher, Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Max Kramer (Aut), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Markus Brier (Aut), Peter Fowler (Aus), Juan Abbate (Arg), Garry Houston, Graeme McDowell, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Stephan jr. Gross (Ger), Gary Murphy, Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
72 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Gary Orr, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Mark Brown (USA), Sion Bebb, John Daly (USA), Peter Hanson (Swe), Rory McIlroy, Stephen Dodd, Tom Whitehouse, Michael Jonzon (Swe), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Edoardo Molinari (Ita)
73 Luis Claverie (Spa), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Peter Lawrie, Anthony Wall, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Bradley Dredge, Martin Wiegele (Aut), Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Magnus Carlsson (Swe), Paolo Terreni (Ita), Stuart Manley, Scott Drummond, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Sam Walker, Lee S James, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Ariel Canete (Arg), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra)
74 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Damien McGrane, David Frost (Rsa), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Robert Rock, Marc Warren, Alastair Forsyth, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Zane Scotland, Niklas Lemke (Swe), Phillip Price, Julio Zapata (Arg), Alex Cejka (Ger), Stephen Gallacher, Paul Lawrie, Dennis Kupper (Ger), Marcel Haremza (Ger), Florian Praegant (Aut)
75 Peter Whiteford, Peter Baker, Andrew Coltart, Marcel Siem (Ger), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Simon Dyson, Paul Broadhurst, Marco Soffietti (Ita), Simon Khan, Christoph Gunther (Ger), Sam Little, James Kamte (Rsa)
76 Marc Farry (Fra), Richard Bland, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), David Drysdale, Sven Struver (Ger), Phillip Archer, Pablo Martin (Spa)
77 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Leif Westerberg (Swe), Richard Porter (Ger), Gary Birch jr (Ger)
78 David Dixon, Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
80 David Carter, Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Sean Einhaus (Ger)
81 Miles Tunnicliff
83 Rick Kulacz (Aus)
