Staff WriterThe Hangzhou Open isn’t supposed to be a stroll in the park, but Victor Pastor clearly didn’t get the memo. The Spaniard tore around Hangzhou West Lake Golf Club with the swagger of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing, carding a bogey-free nine-under-par 63 to take a one-shot lead after day one.
Pastor’s round was a lesson in control rather than chaos—nine birdies, no drama, and a scoreboard that makes the rest of the field shift a little uneasily in their courtesy cars. Sitting just one behind is China’s own Xinjun Zhang, who may well be the only man within shouting distance if Pastor keeps his foot on the accelerator.
“Today I played amazing,” Pastor said, sounding like a man who knows understatement when he sees it. “Even my misses were good so I am really happy with the way that I played, and I will try to repeat it tomorrow and over the weekend.”
Starting on the first tee, Pastor wasted no time punching his name into the conversation with three birdies in his opening four holes. He cruised to the turn in 31 thanks to back-to-back gains before calmly dismantling the back nine with another four birdies—including a tidy pickup on the par-five 10th for good measure.
“I did everything really well out there today. I had a great start. I hit two good shots and made a couple of putts before getting up and down on number three and I left it to about a foot on the fourth, which was a tough hole,” he added. That’s the kind of commentary you get from a man who has his irons dialled in and his nerves somewhere close to cryogenic.
But it’s not just about leading after day one. Pastor arrived at this penultimate stop on the season sitting 56th in the Road to Mallorca Rankings—miles outside the top 45 who book their ticket to the Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada. So yes, this week matters. Big time.
“I know I’ll need a great result this week to make the Rolex Grand Final in Mallorca, and this is a great start, which I’ll try to continue this weekend,” he said, eyes firmly fixed on promotion to the DP World Tour.
“If someone gives you nine birdies to start the tournament you’ll take it. Today has helped me a lot to reach the goal which is a good result in this tournament.”
Behind the Spaniard, England’s James Morrison and Austria’s Lukas Nemecz share third at seven under. A shot further back lurk Tom Lewis, Bryce Easton, and China’s Bowen Chai. Spain’s Adri Arnaus and Sebastian Garcia sit at five under alongside Sweden’s Albin Bergstrom and Peru’s Julian Perico, all of whom will be eager to stop Pastor from turning this into a runaway.
Round two of the Hangzhou Open gets underway at a chilly 6:30 am local time. Pastor will go again at 12:10 pm, flanked by Yi-Tseng Huang of Chinese Taipei and Sweden’s Albin Bergstrom.
If Thursday was any indication, someone is going to need more than a polite knock on the leaderboard door to slow him down. They’ll need a battering ram.
