Matt Fitzpatrick believes he is right on track to erase his Dubai disappointment after an opening 66 in the UBS Hong Kong Open.
Fitzpatrick led by a shot at halfway in the defence of his DP World Tour Championship title last week, but struggled to a third round of 72 and eventually finished 12th.
That was still the 23-year-old from Sheffield’s seventh straight top-15 finish since he won the Omega European Masters and a round containing six birdies and two bogeys at Fanling left him a shot behind leader SSP Chawrasia.
"It's a good start to the week," Fitzpatrick told th European Tour's website. "It's not an easy course and listening to Justin Rose talking after the pro-am, he said four rounds of four under would be a good score. I'd definitely take that right now and see where you end up.
“I hit it great tee to green, think I had seven or eight chances inside 15 feet and on a day like today when it’s so windy it was a good day.
“We had a bit of a crowd with us which was great. People are going to be following Tommy (Fleetwood) seeing as he won the Race to Dubai last week.
“I played with Tommy in my first start as a pro so we have known each other for quite some time and it’s always good to play with him.”
Four days after being crowned European number one for the first time, Fleetwood shrugged off the effects of playing his fifth event in a row with a 68 matched by Race to Dubai rival Rose.
“Everything felt good,” said Fleetwood, who finished just 58,821 points ahead of Olympic champion Rose on the money list.
“It was nice out there, on such a tough day, to have quite a few chances and be stress-free for the most part. My putting felt really good and I had a few that burnt the edge.
“It would have been nice for them to drop but we’ve got another three days for them to drop.”
Rose, who won in Hong Kong in 2015, looked on course to finish ahead of Fleetwood until a bogey on the 18th, where he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
“It was an interesting round because I made five birdies, all of them from two feet,” Rose said. “I stuffed it in there five times but didn’t really make putts of any distance.
“That was as tough as I have played this golf course today. It was very tricky and at this time of day, the greens get a little tough to read. It was a shame to miss the par putt on the last but other than that I am quite pleased with two under and a steady start.”
Ireland's Paul Dunne, who on Thursday was named on the European team for the EurAsia Cup, shot a disappointing one over par 71.
A birdie on the fifth came between three bogeys on the front nine, but an improved back nine included birdies on the 10th, 12th and 13th holes. His round dipped again however with bogeys on the 15th and 18th.
Masters champion Sergio Garcia also bogeyed the tricky 18th in a round of 69.
Collated first round scores in the UBS Hong Kong Open (par 70):
(a) denotes amateurs
65 S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind)
66 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Matthew Fitzpatrick (UK)
67 Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Micah Lauren Shin (USA), Keith Horne (Rsa), Jamie Donaldson, Angelo Que (Phi), Poom Saksansin (Tha), Thomas Detry (Bel)
68 Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Haotong Li (Chn), Julian Suri (USA), Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood (both UK), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Danny Chia (Mal)
69 Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Harold Varner III (USA), Khalin Joshi (Ind), Alexander Bjork (Swe), Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Jin-ho Choi (Kor), Robert Rock, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Sean Crocker (USA), Sam Brazel (Aus), Gavin Green (Mal), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), Oliver Farr, Gregory Havret (Fra)
70 Ricardo Gouveia (Por), Ben Leong (Mal), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Siddikur Rahman (Ban), Paul Peterson (USA), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Miguel Tabuena (Phi), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Sutijet Kooratanapisan (Tha), Danthai Boonma (Tha), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
71 Bradley Neil, Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Carlos Pigem (Spa), Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha), Chase Koepka (USA), Paul Dunne (Irl), Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Clement Sordet (Fra), Paul Waring, Ashley Chesters (both UK), Natipong Srithong (Tha), Chris Paisley, James Morrison (both UK), Todd Sinnott (Aus), Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Chris Hanson, Ryan Evans (both UK), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Rashid Khan (Ind), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Scott Vincent (Zim)
72 Steven Brown (UK), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Oliver Fisher, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Lionel Weber (Fra), (a) Leon D'Souza (Hkg), Piya Swangarunporn (Tha), Sam Chien (USA), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Pontus Widegren (Swe), Rattanon Wannasrichan (Tha), Daniel Im (USA), Mukesh Kumar (Ind), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Chien-Yao Hung (Tai), Pedro Oriol (Spa), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
73 Wei-Chih Lu (Tha), Lasse Jensen (Den), Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Aaron Rai (UK), Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha), Scott Hend (Aus), David Drysdale (UK), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Casey O'Toole (USA), Antonio Lascuna (Phi), S Chikkarangappa (Ind), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
74 Chiragh Kumar (Ind), Ashun Wu (Chn), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Anthony Kang (USA), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Arjun Atwal (Ind), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Johannes Veerman (USA)
75 Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Shih-Chang Chan (Tpe), David Howell (UK), Scott Fernandez (Spa), Nicholas Fung (Mal), Scott Barr (Aus), David Lipsky (USA), (a) Matthew Cheung (Hkg), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Austin Connelly (Can), Soomin Lee (Kor)
76 Jorge Campillo (Spa), (a) Taichi Kho (Hkg), James Stewart (UK)
77 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fij), Javier Colomo (Spa), Alfie Plant (UK), Jens Dantorp (Swe)
78 Woon Man Wong (Hkg)
79 (a) Joshua Shou (Sin)
80 Daniel Brooks, Richard T Lee (Can)
82 Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha)
