Tournament: Genesis Championship
Race to Dubai: Tournament 42 of 44
Back 9: Tournament 9 of 9
Venue: Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Incheon, South Korea
Prize Fund: US$4,000,000
Hashtag: #GenesisChampionship #DPWT
Ivan Cantero boosted his chances of securing his DP World Tour card for 2025 with an opening 66 to hold a one-shot lead at the Genesis Championship.
The final tournament of the Back 9 will determine who will retain their playing rights for next year, with the top 114 after the event slated to keep their card.
The Spaniard began the week on the bubble in 117th place, but he rolled in seven birdies and dropped a solitary shot to set the pace at six under par at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
Cantero needed a fast start in Incheon and he obliged with a stunning approach to three feet at the first to immediately get into the red numbers.
He was two under through three when taking advantage of the par-five third and continued his momentum with back-to-back birdies from the sixth.
The World Number 454 reached the turn in 31 thanks to a fifth birdie at the ninth and when he followed that up with an 11-foot effort at the tenth, he was at six under.
Cantero blotted his scorecard when he dropped his only shot at the 16th, but he responded in style by landing his tee-shot at the par-three 17th within six feet to return to six under and set the clubhouse lead.
Home duo Byeong Hun An and Hongtaek Kim, Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, South Africa’s Casey Jarvis, Scotland’s Scott Jamieson, Swede Jonas Blixt and Englishman Richard Mansell sit one adrift, with a further ten players at four under.
Those players include defending champion Pablo Larrazábal and fellow Spaniards Alejandro Del Rey and Manuel Elvira, Korean pair Tom Kim and Seunghyuk Kim, New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, Italian Renato Paratore, Dane Søren Kjeldsen, Germany’s Marcel Schneider and Englishman Todd Clements.
Play was suspended with six players, including Blixt, yet to complete their opening rounds.
Player quotes
Ivan Cantero: Obviously I need a good week or I am out of the the main Tour, but I have one more week, one more chance and my game is good condition. I hit good drivers and with this course, if you are in good position, it is possible to have a good score.
I think no difference. Today I made putts and the last couple of weeks I missed a lot of putts and my confidence was down all the time, and now I am confident with my putting and my driver.
Of course playing with Pablo (Larrazabal) is always good, he gave me a lot of advice on the golf course and I am very happy.
Byeong Hun An: It was special, I played pretty good. So iffy swings, I maybe had two of those, but other than that I hit a lot of fairways and hit some great shots, so quite happy with five under.
It was pretty tricky, it has a generous fairway but the course was very soft so the ball is not flying as far, it just has very tricky greens, so you need to play the right shots and be really accurate. I feel I did that pretty good for 16 holes, apart for two of them, but I feel it is a second shot golf course.
I feel like you feel where you are at. Three years ago I was 300th player in the world and now I feel like I am the top 30,40 players in the world. I didn’t do much different, I had a bit of a swing change, which is always a hard kind of spell and I had a few iffy swings here and there, and I have worked pretty hard.
I’m sure there are guys who have worked harder than me but compared to ten years ago, I feel like I am working it harder and taking care of myself a bit better, and everything is coming along. I had a pretty decent year last year, and this year has been my best year so far in my career, so hopefully I can get a little bit better next year.
Richard Mansell: Bogey-free five under is always a good start. Played some nice stuff and just really trying to conserve energy, the jetlag is pretty real right now, so I felt it out there a little bit. My caddie sort of got on to me to try and do our best, and take some sensible approaches when I could have perhaps taken it on, or when my ego may have taken it on, so it seemed to work today to keep things simple and keep myself in the tournament for the rest of the week.
I have given up with trying to control it now. I have been out here two or three years now and been close to winning, and basically I try too hard, that’s my biggest problem and I have just kind of got to that point where I am tired of it. It doesn’t mean I don’t work hard, because I do everything that I can, but I am just trying to let go and get away from that side of it, and I am hoping that kind of free me up to just kick on that extra bit now.
The people are great, genuinely some of the nicest people you could meet. Like I say, a bit of perspective, we get to remind ourselves that we are playing golf, travelling the world and I have come the other side of the world to play a golf tournament for a lot of money, it’s very generous to increase that prize fund from where it was, so it’s a great place.
Casey Jarvis: I played solid. I was hitting the ball pretty nicely all round, putts just didn’t fall the front nine, and then made a good couple putts on the back nine, so a nice solid round.
There was no wind, so the front nine was playing pretty easy, so I didn’t take as much advantage of it as I could, but played solid that back nine to shoot a good score.
I’m obviously a bit tired, it’s my 11th week out here in Europe and the body is a little tired, but we have a couple weeks left so hopefully we will see some good results.
I’m trying to not let it be on my mind at the moment (qualifying for the DP World Tour Play-Offs), just trying to play and have fun. I’m going home on Sunday as I haven’t been home for a while so that will be nice.
Tom Kim: A lot of soft bogeys out there for me but I think just kind of getting into the groove. Obviously, it wasn’t a good way to start with a three putt, but bounced back really well. I hit the ball well and I think the wind picked up a little bit, so there were a few tough holes I feel like I did a really good job of going through some things, and you know kept it really steady.
Didn’t really try to do anything, I knew I was kind of playing well, and I just needed to give myself opportunities and I did. I think with golf, you just can’t be satisfied, you always think what if I made this putt or that putt, what could have been, but I think first round at the start of today if you had told me, I would have taken it.
It’s a good start, I think if you can kind of keep having good finishes it will add up, and I’m just trying to keep myself in good positions going forward every single day and I have some work to do.
It is nice to be home, I haven’t played here for two and a half, three years since I got to the PGA TOUR, so to be able to see some familiar faces and hear some roars and claps, it was really great.
