Charl Schwartzel made his return to play in Europe on Thursday as he carded a five-under-par 67 in the opening round of the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi.
Although he bogeyed the ninth and the 12th for the only blemishes on his scorecard, he managed to take a share of ninth, three shots behind the leader Scott Jamieson of Scotland, who set the course record with his nine birdies. Jamieson had a one-stroke lead over Viktor Hovland of Norway, with Thomas Pieters of Belgium in third on seven-under-par 65.
Schwartzel was one stroke behind five players on six-under, and shared ninth with three others, including 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry. There were still some players out on the course as first-round play was suspended due to darkness.
Schwartzel’s first drop came on the 12th after starting his round on the 10th. He pushed his drive into the right rough, and was only able to hack out to the fairway. He made the green with his third, but two-putted from 20 feet. His closing bogey came when he misjudged a putt from off the ninth green, and then two putted from inside seven feet.
Justin Harding and Erik van Rooyen opened with three-under 69 each, while Daniel van Tonder, Richard Sterne and Dean Burmester were all on one-under. Oliver Bekker was also on one-under, but had completed just 15 holes. George Coetzee was on level-par and Garrick Higgo was on one-over. Justin Walters, Brandon Stone and Darren Fichardt all signed for two-over 74.
Jamieson is known for his capacity to go low, missing a putt for the first 59 in DP World Tour history at the 2013 Portugal Masters and recording a 61 at last season’s Tenerife Open.
