Matthew Southgate managed his second hole-in-one of the season at the NBO Oman Open on Thursday.
Both he and Englishman Paul Waring fired spotless opening rounds of 65, good enough to be seven shots below par.
Southgate cracked his tee shot into the cup on the par three fifth hole, for his second ace on the European Tour this season.
Neither Southgate or Waring has ever won a European Tour event, and both will be itching for the chance to convert their excellent starts into some hardware.
Waring is 183rd on the tour this year, and Southgate 162nd. A positive result in Oman would go a long way to boosting them up the rankings that determines who gets into the tour championship in Dubai in November.
Despite his good start, Waring wasn’t getting comfortable at the top of the standings:
I played some of the best golf I’ve played in a little while,
I actually missed some chances, which sounds ridiculous, but I’m really happy with that.
