Opening day of season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama

Great Dane Kjeldsen shoots a 65 to lead
by three from Sergio Garcia

Denmark’s Søren Kjeldsen warned there was “a long way to go,” despite taking a three-shot lead over Sergio Garcia on the opening day of the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama with a brilliant six-under-par 65.
The Dane made light work of difficult windy conditions in southern Spain as the European Tour season draws to a close with the top 60 players on The Order of Merit taking to the course.
Four of those - Robert Karlsson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jiménez - are all in contention for the Harry Vardon Trophy as winner of the Order of Merit.
Kjeldsen’s round gives him the advantage over Sunday's Castellon Masters winner Garcia, who is a shot ahead of England’s David Lynn and Anthony Wall.
On a day when birdies were difficult to come by, Kjeldsen made eight of them, thanks to some tremendous putting and pinpoint accuracy from the tee.
“The breeze was strong and there's not that much space out there really,” he said.
“You have to control the ball well and seems like pretty much every shot I hit today came up sort of the way I saw it before hitting it. So you've got to take advantage of those days, and I did.
“There's a long way to go. My priority is to hit a good tee shot on the first tomorrow, and that's as far as it goes really. You never know with this game, especially on this course, but playing well last year and playing well last week, I felt good coming into today. But to do six under today, I couldn't have predicted that obviously.”
Garcia said: "I think it was a good, solid start. Tough day on a very difficult golf course. Wind was blowing quite hard and was all over the place but I managed to hit the ball quite decent and gave myself some good birdie chances.
"You know, the greens I missed, I hit some good chips and gave myself some good par putts at it. I putted nicely, overall, it was a nice start for the week."
Karlsson promised a marshal “as many beers as he wants” after staying on course for the Order of Merit Title.
Despite only managing a 73, Karlsson is still looking good for the money list crown as Harrington, Westwood and Jiménez are not where they need to be on the leaderboard.
The Swede's round was slipping away from him when he drove into bushes on the long 11th, but the marshal risked cutting himself to ribbons by crawling in to retrieve the ball.
“We could see five balls in there, but couldn't identify them,” said Karlsson. “There were a lot of thorns and things, but he volunteered to go in and found it.”
It meant Karlsson did not have to go all the way back to the tee, and after salvaging a par on the hole he birdied the 15th and 18th for an inward 34.
Harrington, who requires a top two finish to have a chance of regaining the No 1 spot, managed only a 76 to be joint 43rd of the 57-strong field.
Westwood and Jiménez, who have to win on Sunday, finished the day tied for fifth and 16th respectively after returning 70 and 73.
The day belonged to Kjeldsen, though, on his return to the course where he lost a play-off to Justin Rose a year ago.
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