Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut fired an opening-round five-under-par 66 to take the lead in the International Series England today at Close House, near Newcastle.
He fired six birdies and one bogey in winter-like conditions on the Colt Course, to finish the day in front of American Jason Kokrak and Jaewoong Eom from Korea who carded 67s.
Germany’s Dominic Foos and Suradit Yongcharoenchai from Thailand returned 68s, while Ian Poulter was in group of 10 players on 69.
Sarit actually played a practice round here with countryman Pavit Tangkamolprasert before last year’s International Series England, which was played at a different venue, and said: “Maybe that helped a little bit today, there was more rain that time.”
He started on the back nine today, and birdied 10, and 14 before a brilliant two on the 18th – a difficult 185-yard par-three, that could be the scene of much drama come Sunday. He dropped a shot on the second, but recovered with gains on three, six and eight.
“I have been hitting it really well,” he said. “Today was just about the putting, it is all about the putting. Still need to fix my long putting, I might practice that.”
Sarit triumphed for the first time on the Asian Tour last year, at the season-ending Indonesian Masters, but has struggled this year, until a top-10 finish in the Mandiri Indonesia Open two weeks ago.
“I had an injury at the beginning of the year, at first it was a back injury, then I got sick, I got COVID, I also had neck and wrist problems,” said the 25-year-old, who was also laid low by COVID last year.
“I took a lot of time off to repair my body, to not get into trouble with injury again, I think that’s worked.”
Kokrak, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour including two in 2021, finished strongly with birdies on 16 and 17.
“Very happy with that,” said the 38-year-old.
“I thought I was going along well but not really making any putts. I was hitting it well but thought I should be more under par. Made a couple there at the end, happy with it.
“The course is wet and super long. I would love to see this place really bouncy.”
Foos made it through the Asian Tour Qualifying School in January and enjoyed his best opening round on the Tour today.
He said: “It was a solid round of golf. I didn’t expect it to be windy or anything. I kept the ball low, hit fairways and greens, made some putts here and there and played the par fives well and that was about it. But it was a very solid round.
“I have been playing on Challenge Tour mainly, but it’s obviously great to play a big International Series event here, and next week as well.”
He finished second in a Challenge Tour event in Germany last month and is in confident mood.
“My game feels very good, and I know as soon as the putts drop, I am going to shoot low scores. I’ll just try and keep doing the same thing,” he added.
Englishman Poulter, who has won twice before on the Asian Tour, was happy to get in the clubhouse among the leaders after a rough second half.
“Damage limitation!” said Poulter.
“Obviously, three under par through nine and cruising but bogeyed the first hole which is my 10th, a par five, which is suicide, frustrating to do that. I shanked it down four which is not ideal, nearly made par, and had another bogey on the par three with a pulled eight iron, I was in the middle of the fairway there. Dropping three shots on that nine was poor.”
His son, Luke, an amateur, started well with a 72 although made costly mistakes with the short stick.
Said Poulter: “He’s one over, he had four three putts! He will probably slap himself around the head, so he has obviously played good golf, and he has not done his job on the putting green. He is a good golfer, and great he is in the field this week.”
His compatriot and playing partner Lee Westwood, who is the Touring Professional for Close House, also looked set to be among the front runners but made a double on his third from last hole and came in with a 70.
American Andy Ogletree, who currently leads the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits, signed for a 72, while Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong, who claimed the Mandiri Indonesia Open two weeks ago, shot 73.
Scores after round 1 of the International Series England 2023 being played at the par 71, 6872 Yards Close House course (am – denotes amateur):
66 – Sarit Suwannarut (THA).
67 – Jason Kokrak (USA), Jaewoong Eom (KOR).
68 – Dominic Foos (GER), Suradit Yongcharoenchai (THA).
69 – Pavit Tangkamolprasert (THA), Matt Jones (AUS), Ian Poulter (ENG), Lee Chieh-po (TPE), Naraajie Ramadhanputra (INA), Phachara Khongwatmai (THA), Kieran Vincent (ZIM), Dean Burmester (RSA), Zach Murray (AUS), Ben Jones (ENG).
70 – David Puig (ESP), Abraham Ancer (MEX), James Wilson (ENG), Micah Lauren Shin (USA), Lee Westwood (ENG), Angelo Que (PHI), Ben Campbell (NZL), Hudson Swafford (USA), Peter Uihlein (USA), Michael Maguire (USA), James Piot (USA), Chase Koepka (USA), Gunn Charoenkul (THA), Jaco Ahlers (RSA), Miguel Tabuena (PHI), Wade Ormsby (AUS), Richard Bland (ENG), Neil Schietekat (RSA), Anirban Lahiri (IND), Kosuke Hamamoto (THA), Wang Wei-hsuan (TPE), Jack Thompson (AUS), Terry Pilkadaris (AUS), Matthew Cheung (HKG).
71 – A.J. Batty (ENG), Taehee Lee (KOR), Shahriffuddin Ariffin (MAS), Hideto Tanihara (JPN), Prom Meesawat (THA), Travis Smyth (AUS), Trevor Simsby (USA), Chanat Sakulpolphaisan (THA), Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND), Lloyd Jefferson Go (PHI), Jean Bekirian (FRA), Taichi Kho (HKG), MJ Viljoen (RSA), Graeme McDowell (NIR), Turk Pettit (USA), Chen Guxin (CHN), Matt Sharpstene (USA), Ye Wocheng (CHN).
72 – Luke Joy (ENG), Settee Prakongvech (THA), Luke Poulter (am, ENG), Jbe Kruger (RSA), Poom Saksansin (THA), Bjorn Hellgren (SWE), Josh Younger (AUS), Chanmin Jung (KOR), Jediah Morgan (AUS), Andy Ogletree (USA), Danny Lee (NZL), Douglas Klein (AUS), David Hague (ENG).
73 – Yikeun Chang (KOR), Nitithorn Thippong (THA), Eugenio Chacarra (ESP), Steve Lewton (ENG), Thomas Power-Horan (AUS), Tomoharu Otsuki (JPN), Hung Chien-yao (TPE), Pawin Ingkhapradit (THA), Kyongjun Moon (KOR), Zhengkai Bai (CHN), Meenwhee Kim (KOR), Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA), Yoseop Seo (KOR), Nicholas Fung (MAS), Itthipat Buranatanyarat (THA), Rashid Khan (IND), Rhys Thompson (ENG).
74 – Brendan Steele (USA), Rattanon Wannasrichan (THA), Ian Snyman (RSA), Richard T. Lee (CAN), Siddikur Rahman (BAN), Kevin Yuan (AUS), Othman Almulla (KSA), Jeev Milkha Singh (IND), David Drysdale (SCO), Sihwan Kim (USA), Brendan Jones (AUS), Ben Leong (MAS), Dodge Kemmer (USA), Jyoti Randhawa (IND), Khalin Joshi (IND).
75 – Simon Robinson (ENG), S.S.P. Chawrasia (IND), Sebastian Munoz (COL), Matt Killen (ENG), Pat Perez (USA), Shiv Kapur (IND), Jack Harrison (ENG), Todd Sinnott (AUS), Yongjun Bae (KOR), Suteepat Prateeptienchai (THA), Sangpil Yoon (KOR).
76 – Taewoo Kim #1468 (KOR), Samuel Westwood (ENG), S. Chikkarangappa (IND), Kartik Sharma (IND), John Lyras (AUS), Seungtaek Lee (KOR), Jack Murdoch (AUS), Faisal Salhab (KSA), Miguel Carballo (ARG), Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (THA), Chonlatit Chuenboonngam (THA), Davis Love IV (USA), Jarin Todd (USA), Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND).
77 – Chan Shih-chang (TPE), Andrew Dodt (AUS), Nicolas Paez (USA), Rory Franssen (ENG), Mardan Mamat (SIN), Rahil Gangjee (IND), Atiruj Winaicharoenchai (THA), Nick Voke (NZL), Karandeep Kochhar (IND), Laird Shepherd (ENG).
78 – Scott Hend (AUS), Danthai Boonma (THA), Honey Baisoya (IND), Will Marshall (ENG), Saud Al Sharif (KSA), Marcus Fraser (AUS), Veer Ahlawat (IND), Berry Henson (USA), Chang Wei-lun (TPE), Harrison Gilbert-Wong (AUS).
79 – Kyson Lloyd (ENG), Runchanapong Youprayong (THA), Natipong Srithong (THA), Denwit Boriboonsub (THA), Viraj Madappa (IND).
80 – Carlos Bustos (CHI).
81 – Alex Ching (USA).
83 – Chapchai Nirat (THA).
88 – Shergo Al Kurdi (JOR).
