New Zealand's Brad Iles continues to flourish in his rookie career as a golf professional.
Iles fired an impressive opening round four under par 68 yesterday, to be in a share of sixth place with Peter O'Malley at the Australian Masters in Melbourne, and he is just four shots off
the leader, Australian Nick O'Hern.
Iles said he just hit the ball in the right place on the course all day, made the putts when it mattered, and with a bit more luck on the back nine, he could have gone even better as he was four under after 10 holes.
It is just his second tournament as a professional and he still has to pinch himself when he looks at the leaderboard.
He said it seems a bit surreal to see his name eight shots ahead of world number eight Adam Scott.
Fellow New Zealanders Gareth Paddison and Martin Pettigrew are at one under par.
O'Hern is hoping for another hot day with the putter today, after firing a blistering eight under par 64 in the opening round.
He is three shots clear of the field.
O'Hern said he has been working hard on his putting lately and finally they are starting to drop, which makes an enormous difference to his game.
SCORES
After the first round of the Australian Masters at the par-72 6383m Huntingdale Golf Club course:
64 - Nick O'Hern (Aus)
67 - John Senden (Aus), Robert Allenby (Aus), Adam Bland (Aus), Steven Conran (Aus)
68 - Peter O'Malley (Aus), BRAD ILES (NZ)
69 - Paul Sheehan (Aus), Dean Alaban (Aus), Nathan Green (Aus), Martin Doyle (Aus)
70 - Bubba Watson (US), David McKenzie (Aus), Kim Felton (Aus), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Paul Casey (England), Oliver Fisher (England-a), Ricky Schmidt (Aus), Brett Rumford v, Alistair Presnell (Aus), Jarrod Lyle (Aus), Marcus Cain (Aus), Richard Backwell (Aus)
also:
71 - GARETH PADDISON (NZ), MARTIN PETTIGREW (NZ)
74 - MARCUS WHEELHOUSE (NZ)
- NEWSTALK ZB
