Sergio Garcia took advantage of perfect early conditions to shoot a brilliant nine-under-par 64 in the opening round of the Greg Norman Holden International in Sydney yesterday. The 21-year-old Spaniard, seeking his first victory for 16 months, hardly put a foot wrong on a morning of spectacular scoring at The Lakes.
Shaking off the effects of jet lag - he arrived from Pebble Beach only on Tuesday morning - Garcia grabbed no fewer than nine birdies in the sunshine.
What he described as "a great round" was good enough only for a one-stroke lead, however, as European Order of Merit leader Pierre Fulke birdied three of his last four holes for a 65.
And the chasing pack were not far back either. Tournament host Norman, who celebrates his 46th birthday on Saturday, came in with a 66, as did Phillip Price, Daren Lee and New Zealander Steve Alker.
The Irish pair of Ronan Rafferty and David Higgins struggled to opening rounds of 75 and 78 respectively.
Nor could Nick Faldo get in on the fun. As the wind picked up after lunch Faldo slumped 12 behind after putting two balls in water and running up a quadruple bogey nine on the long 17th.
Garcia had two rounds of 62 within three months of turning professional in 1999 - one in Texas and the other at Loch Lomond. But they were par 70 and 71 courses respectively, so today's effort equals the most he has been below par in one round.
"After a couple of good nights' sleep I felt great," he said. "I started hitting the ball really good and made some nice early birdies. It kept me going for the whole round."
The score, one outside the course record set by Adam Scott playing as an amateur last year, could easily have been lower. Garcia needed only a seven-iron for his second shot to the dogleg 534-yard 14th - his fifth - but had to settle for par after hitting it into sand.
It stopped him making it four birdies in a row, but a 15-foot putt on the next green got him moving forward again, and in addition to making more birdies on the next three par fives he holed from 20 feet at the 384yard fifth and pitched to three feet on the 341-yard sixth.
Fulke's thoughts are now starting to turn to his rapidly-approaching Players' Championship and US Masters debuts and with them in mind he made an important switch.
Instead of continuing with the driver banned in America because of the spring-like effect of its clubface, he put a conforming one in his bag - and was delighted with the results.
"I tried four and found one I'm quite content with," he said. "It makes only five or six metres difference - hardly anything - and I hit it straight as usual."
