Round one of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth saw local hope Brett Rumford share the overnight lead with Englishman Mark Foster.

Rumford was impressive without setting the course on fire; he gave an understated assessment of his 6-under 66 round.

“It was really nice, just a solid 33 front, 33 back, for a 66, that’s pretty much how the round unfolded,” Rumford said.

“No stretches of brilliance, just a consistent round of golf. I controlled the ball pretty much how I wanted it most the day and, yeah, I think the golf course is set up that way as well.

“It’s relatively generous off the tee when the wind’s not blowing as strong as what it was this morning, but the greens being a bit more receptive as well, fairly large greens, quite generous, and they’re actually rolling very, very well.”

The West Australian said he expected to be run down after setting the pace early in the round but was only joined by Foster at the top of the leaderboard.

“Yeah, pleasantly surprised, come all this way and you don’t know what to expect, and obviously as the round went on it got better so I was really pleased,” Foster said after his round of 6-under 66.

Even though Foster is no stranger to the Lake Karrinyup course, a third place in the 2014 ISPS HANDA Perth International his best result, he said it’s playing differently to the last time he was in Perth due to the recent weather in Western Australia.

“The course was incomparable in ways it was playing.  Actually I’ve got the same caddie as I had then, but I made a conscious decision that you couldn’t play the same way because it was obviously a lot softer so you had to play some different shots.”

Foster’s compatriot Robert Dinwiddie is in a logjam for third position alongside another two West Australians; Jason Scrivener, Daniel Fox and Stephen Dartnall.

Scrivener, who was third in the ISPS HANDA Perth International at Lake Karrinyup last year, jumped up the leaderboard thanks to a blemish free 18 holes and an eagle on the par-5 7th to accompany his three birdies for 5-under 67.

“It was pretty simple really, I hit a really good drive,” Scrivener said of his eagle.

“The wind switched to a southwest which helped us there. The hole played a lot shorter, hit a 5 iron to about eight foot and it rolled it in. So up until then it was kind of plodding and grinding away and then that really helped.

“I wasn’t quite expecting to shoot 5-under the way I started today, but finished nicely and, yeah, kept the mistakes off the card.”

Fox meanwhile said he was pleased to turn his form around on the Lake Karrinyup course, matching Scrivener’s 5-under 67 with five birdies.

“Very stoked with that, I’ve had a couple of bad runs here the last two years, missed the cut by a shot or two shots,” Fox said.

“So I had it in my mind to just come out and play golf and I knew I’d have to shoot something pretty decent. The conditions this morning were scoreable and the course is very much gettable, so very pleased with 5 under.”

Also in a tie for third place are Adam Blyth (QLD), Sebastian Heisele (GER), Hideto Tanihara (JPN), Lucas Herbert (VIC), Casey O’Toole (USA) and Johannes Veerman.

The second round of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth will tee off at 6.40am with Foster in action at Lake Karrinyup Country Club at 7.50am and Rumford out at 11.50am.

For all round 1 scores please visit pga.org.au.

For all round 2 tee times please visit pga.org.au.

The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth will be played at Lake Karrinyup Country Club from 16-19 February and will form part of both the 2017 European Tour Race to Dubai and the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

To see World Number 11 Alex Noren in action at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth please visit Ticketmaster to book your tickets.

The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth is proudly supported by the West Australian Government via Tourism WA.