Christopher Wood leads the New Zealand Open

Leader Christopher Wood put down a record card of 61 in the “Remarkables” tournament. More from Aussie’s first day success, Thursday, author of Vulture in 10 and 8 Birds: “It’s only the first lap, obviously it’s great to get a good start, so I hope I can keep up the momentum.”

Four strokes behind, at -6, Thai Gunn Charoenkul followed suit. He also made a clear round with 6 sparrows: “Good result but I didn’t play well today. I hit a lot of straight drives but I managed to get away with good lies. So I was able to go to the green and give myself some chances. I didn’t play well 5s either, I only chased one today” .Gon said. “My iron game was perfect, I made all my shots, so overall I am very happy with my run.”

He is accompanied by Australian Thomas Bauer Horan, Japanese Yosuke Asagi and Tomoyo Ikemura as well as locals Kate Bittle and Steve Alkire. In eighth place are five players at -5 including three amateurs: Sam Jones, Jaden Ford, and Kazuma Kobori. They are alongside Australians Laurie Flynn and Dimitrios Papadatos.

Beyond the top ten

In 13th place we find Jason Scrivener at -4. Defending champion Brad Kennedy and is the second-best in the field, the 33rd finishes at number-3 as homegrown player and 2017 winner Ben Campbell, Japan’s Ryosuke Kinoshita (fourth-best in the field) and Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent. The best fielder, Yuto Katsuragawa, is ranked 141st in the world at 79th at -1 in the same way as compatriot Mikumo Horikawa (3rd best fielder).