Gavin Green leads with a 64 in Czech Masters: Liam Johnston leading Scot

Gavin Green carded an opening-round 64 at the D+D Real

Czech Masters for the second successive year, as the

Malaysian moved into a one-stroke lead at Albatross Golf

Resort thanks to his flawless eight under par round.

The 25-year-old was in a similar position at the 2018 edition

of this event, when he shared the first round lead with three

others on eight under, and he eventually finished in third

position for his best finish of the season.

Green has been on the form of his life this summer on the European Tour with three top tens in his last five appearance, including one at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open

– a Rolex Series event. He carried that confidence to Prague after a four-week break and the former Asian Tour Order of Merit winner finished the day a shot clear of South African Erik van Rooyen and Englishman Lee Slattery.

Former Ryder Cup winner Edoardo Molinari was among the six players a shot further back on six under, while Bernd Wiesberger’s recent hot streak showed no sign of slowing – the Austrian opening with a five under 67.

Player quotes:

Gavin Green

“The first few holes today, honestly I felt like I was still in holiday mode. I had four weeks off and was just at home and really just shut down for a few weeks. It was obviously a really good opening round, I just kept everything in play and hit a lot of shots close to the pins so I didn’t have a hard putt. I gave myself a lot of looks at birdies and thankfully it turned out OK.

“It is a little tougher last year than last year. I remember the ball bouncing on the fairways more and the first bounces no the greens were a little firmer. It’s all backspin on the greens here now, so you had to taker spin off – pretty different to last year.

“I’ve been enjoying myself at home the last few weeks, eating a lot, sleeping a lot and driving my car – just being a regular person as opposed to practising all the time. I didn’t practise for two weeks so a complete shut down, just enjoying life.

“I don’t know what it is about this place. I think the course suits me well and it helps if you hit it a little longer and a little higher. It helps to be able to stop the ball on the greens. If you get a good drive away you just have a wedge in your hand, and you can take advantage of that.”

Erik van Rooyen

“I’m playing well and it was nice to be home for a little bit of a break the last few weeks. There's a lot of drivers here and I just love hitting driver. The greens are relatively soft at the moment after all the rain so you can throw pretty much any iron close to the hole. You've got to strike the ball well and that's one of my strengths.

“The goal is to get a win and hopefully more than one. I think it's been a good start to the year up until this point so we'll just keep pushing.”

Lee Slattery

"I played the first four holes today so badly. I played them like a 15 handicapper. It was a bit of a surprise to play that well on the back nine after not playing great on the front nine."

"It was quite wet out there, it was kind of like playing target golf. This place can get quite fast and firey and it has been over the years but today it was a different golf course. It played quite long but you just throw darts at the pins, I quite enjoyed it."

Bernd Wiesberger

"I felt like I needed a couple of weeks off. We had some great weeks, mentally tiring weeks before the last break but we decided to come out and not make that break too long.

"We had a couple of days' practice in the last week with the whole team and it kind of leaped over. I started off really nicely today, hit the brakes a little bit early in the back nine but all in all, I would have taken an opening round like this.

"I try not to make whatever happens out here too dependent on how I feel off the golf course and in my life, but I certainly appreciate what has happened the last couple of weeks.

"I try to feed off it and not take it for granted either. Keep working and try to keep producing good scores and just enjoy myself out there.

"Even though I hit bad shots the frustration is maybe a little shorter than it used to be so therefore it's just a pleasure being out there and being in a position to play for these events again."

Scores:

par 72

64 G Green (Malaysia) pictured right
65 E Van Rooyen (SAf) , L Slattery (Eng) 
66 C Shinkwin (Eng) , K Reitan (Norway) , H Leon (Chile) , J Hansen (Denmark) , E Molinari (Ita) , K Koivu (Finland) 
67 L Johnston (Sco) , R Karlsson (Swe) , B Wiesberger (Austria) , J Scrivener (Australia) , D Fichardt (SAf) , T Pieters (Belgium)
68 Z Lombard (RSA) , S Lee (S Korea) , B Easton (SA) , K Samooja (Finland) , A Pavan (Ita) , R Wattel (Fra) ,
69 J Winther (Den) , O Fisher (Eng) , R MacIntyre (Sco) , W Nienaber (SAf) , J Singh Brar (Eng) , P Angles (Spn) , J Kruyswijk (RSA) , T Pulkkanen (Fin) , H Porteous (SAf) , R Karlberg (Swe) , R Evans (Eng) , D Howell (Eng) , S Brown (Eng) , H Park (S Korea) , C Hanson (Eng) , J Suri (USA) , S Horsfield (Eng) 
70 P Waring (Eng) , P Dunne (Irl) , N Colsaerts (Bel) , B Henson (USA) , M Southgate (Eng) , T Bjørn (Den) , M Korhonen (Fin) , C Sahlstrom (Swe) , G Fernandez-Castaño (Esp) , J Donaldson (Wal) , V Dubuisson (Fra) , S Gallacher (Sco) , B Dredge (Wal) , D Burmester (SAf) , M Schwab (Aut) , A Levy (Fra) , B Rumford (Aus) , L Robinson (Eng) , J Girrbach (Switz) , A Korinek (Czech) , R Gouveia (Por) , C Lloyd (Eng) , L Gagli (Ita) , R Ramsay (Sco) , J Wang (Kor) , S Kim (USA) , J Catlin (USA) , J Ritchie (RSA) , A Chesters (Eng) , T Murray (Eng) , M Nixon (Eng) , J Dantorp (Swe) , J Bares (am) (Cze) ,
71 S Matus (Cze) , M Warren (Sco) , R Paratore (Ita) , D Gavins (Eng) , E De La Riva (Esp) , L De Jager (RSA) , K Johannessen (Nor) , S Manley (Wal) , M Keyser (RSA) , D Papadatos (Aus) , I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) , N McCarthy (Eng) , G Moynihan (Irl) , A Karlsson (Swe) , L Jensen (Den) , N Bertasio (Ita) , M Schneider (Ger) , A Arnaus (Esp) , A Björk (Swe) ,
72 B Evans (Eng) , S Jamieson (Sco) , J Veerman (USA) , J Walters (RSA) , P Mejow (Ger) , P Oriol (Esp) , D Borda (Esp) , D Stewart (Sco) , A Cañizares (Esp) , B Ritthammer (Ger) , J Thomson (Eng) , C Blomstrand (Swe) , N Cullen (Aus) , M Kawamura (Jpn) , A Rai (Eng) , D Lawson (Aus) , Y Chang (Kor) , D Law (Sco) ,
73 S Kjeldsen (Den) , E Pepperell (Eng) , G Bhullar (Ind) , A Bland (Aus) , A Leitmannstetter (Ger) , B Stone (RSA) , J Morrison (Eng) , G Coetzee (RSA) , P Harrington (Irl) , M Pospisil (Cze) , L Westwood (Eng) , S Brazel (Aus) , A Saddier (Fra) , J Cafourek (Cze) , P Valasek (Svk) , F Mruzek (Cze) , E Els (RSA) , F Bergamaschi (Ita) , P Mach (am) (Svk) ,
74 D Horsey (Eng) , P Langfors (Swe) , N Lemke (Swe) , P Peterson (USA) , S Gregory (Eng) , M Manassero (Ita) , E Kofstad (Nor) , M Siem (Ger) , L Tintera (Cze) , S Soderberg (Swe) , Š Zach (Cze) , R Jacquelin (Fra) , J Zuska (am) (Cze) ,
75 P Gal (Cze) , G Forrest (Sco) ,
76 M Orrin (Eng) , A Otaegui (Esp) , J Choi (Kor) , T Lewis (Eng) , M Pavon (Fra) ,
77 J Geary (Nzl) , M Schmitt (Ger) , J Todd (USA) , F Raza (am) (Cze) ,
78 Š Páleník (Cze) , A Connelly (Can) , D Suchan (Cze) , P Hruby (am) (Cze) ,
79 P Figueiredo (Por) ,