Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship: day 1

Martin Kaymer of Germany plays his approach to the 9th during the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship . Credit: Getty Images

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Martin Kaymer, a three-time winner of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, leads after a first round 64, on a day which saw two holes-in-one

Martin Kaymer, a three-time winner of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship leads after the first round at Abu Dhabi GC. The 30-year-old German shot ten birdies in his opening round of 64, and showed his continuing mastery around this course on which his average score in tournament play is 67.79.

Miguel Angel Jimenez also aced a hole, the 174-yard 15th. But sly for him, there was no hole-in-one prize on this hole. Eleven aces have been scored in the tournament’s 10-year history, but this was the first at the 15th.

It was also Jimenez ’s eighth hole in one on the European Tour - only Colin Montgomerie , with nine, has more such aces. The flamboyant Spaniard celebrated with a wee dance. His back nine went: double bogey, birdie, birdie, birdie, par, eagle, bogey, bogey, par and he ended the day level par.

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Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novels, Summer At Tangents, which was one of Country Life magazine's Books of The Year for 2024 and nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and Crime Wave At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine and website and compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.