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Justin Warren has made a late surge in round one of the AVJennings NSW Open to lead alongside West Australian young-gun Min Woo Lee at the halfway mark of the opening round.
A rising star of the golfing world, Lee put his talent on display on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia with an eagle, seven birdies and a lone bogey at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club.
“I just played pretty solid. It was stress-free. I made one bogey but made a lot of birdies. There are a lot of birdie chances out there and I rolled the putter great so with the combination of both it was really good,” Lee said.
“I hit good shots when I needed to. Some of the holes are tricky and I just hit an iron off the tee and I know at this course there are a lot of birdies out there so I just kept it going.
“Every round you can get lucky and unlucky. There were a few holes where I got lucky and I just took my medicine on some of them and kept it going.”
A number of players made a late run down the back-nine of the Twin Creeks layout but it was New South Welshman Warren who entered the clubhouse on par with the leader.
A bogey at the challenging 18th reduced Warren’s scorecard from 9-under to 8-under, but the solid opening round score has the 24-year-old sitting pretty ahead of day two.
“I didn’t get myself into too much trouble and drove it well and hit a lot of greens. I had eight birdies and two bogeys out there so I holed some really nice putts and a nice putt for eagle on 15,” Warren said.
“You’ve only got to look at the scores from the past few years to know that there’s certainly some low numbers out there.
“We had pretty benign conditions this morning so the front-nine was certainly gettable. It was just good to shoot 8-under.”
Travis Smyth ran out of luck at the end of his round when his 9-under total was reduced to 7-under at the par-4 18th.
A wayward tee shot met the water on the left, followed by a putt for bogey that lipped out to leave Smyth with a final putt for a double.
A stacked field of talent sits behind the leading duo including Smyth, Dimi Papadatos and amateur Nathan Barbieri all tied for third at 7-under.
Despite the challenge from the field Lee is confident he can maintain the status quo.
“I’ll just do the same thing I guess. I hit it pretty good and putted good so hopefully I can just keep that up. My ball-striking has been pretty good so I think my putter just needs to cooperate,” Lee said.
“If the weather’s good definitely, the scores are going to be low.”
CLICK HERE for live scores from the 2019 NSW Open and follow live updates on our Twitter feed via the handle @PGAofAustralia.
Photo: David Tease – Golf NSW
