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Cape Town - Kurt Kitayama carded a six under par round of 66 to lead the Oman Open after the first round at Al Mouj Golf.
The American, who earned his card for 2019 at Qualifying School and then won his first title in just his third European Tour start at the Mauritius Open at Anahita, parred the first five holes and then birdied the sixth and eighth holes to make the turn two under par.
He then birdied the 11th and eagled the 12th to join early pace-setters Scott Jamieson and Yusaku Miyazato on five under par before taking the outright lead with his fourth birdie of the day on the 16th hole.
"I'm delighted with that. Conditions were pretty tough, so to be bogey free was really good. My putting was great, I had great speed. I had a great putt on 17 from 60 feet to leave a tap-in. Then my last putt over a ridge was great. I made a few putts outside ten feet so that was really nice," said Kitayama.
"On 11 I drained a 40-footer. Hit a great second into the 12th, giving myself 15 feet and I was able to drain that. I got a little lucky out there. I made quite a few putts, so hopefully I can do that tomorrow too. Hopefully we can take advantage of some calmer weather in the morning."
Seven golfers share fourth place on four under par, including Alexander Levy, who came fourth at last year’s Oman Open, and 2016 Ryder Cup player Thomas Pieters, who is making his first appearance at this event.
Defending champion Joost Luiten, who flew in from the WGC-Mexico Championship on Tuesday morning, made a strong start to his title defence with a three under par first round.
Hugo Leon, Zander Lombard and Tom Murray will finish their first rounds on Friday morning after play was suspended due to darkness - the trio have just the 18th hole to play.
Scores after round one
66 K Kitayama (USA) ,
67 S Jamieson (Sco) , Y Miyazato (Jpn) ,
68 A Cañizares (Esp) , T Pieters (Bel) , S Vincent (Zim) , D Horsey (Eng) , A Levy (Fra) , A Saddier (Fra) , R Jacquelin (Fra) ,
69 J Campillo (Esp) , G Moynihan (Irl) , M Kieffer (Ger) , J Luiten (Ned) ,
70 H Tanihara (Jpn) , C Bezuidenhout (RSA) , B Stone (RSA) , A Arnaus (Esp) , J Hansen (Den) , M Korhonen (Fin) , M Baldwin (Eng) , D Drysdale (Sco) , C Syme (Sco) , T Detry (Bel) , B Hebert (Fra) , M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) , R Ramsay (Sco) , R Rock (Eng) ,
71 M Lee (Aus) , C Sordet (Fra) , M Schmitt (Ger) , G Bhullar (Ind) , C Paisley (Eng) , P Lawrie (Sco) , J Smith (Eng) , P Hanson (Swe) , T Jaidee (Tha) , L De Jager (RSA) , R Macintyre (Sco) , F Zanotti (Par) , P Figueiredo (Por) , A Pavan (Ita) ,
72 D Lipsky (USA) , A Sullivan (Eng) , C Wood (Eng) , N Cullen (Aus) , B Wiesberger (Aut) , L Gagli (Ita) , N Colsaerts (Bel) , S Brown (Eng) , K Samooja (Fin) , R Karlsson (Swe) , O Wilson (Eng) , E Kofstad (Nor) , J Kruyswijk (RSA) , S Kim (USA) , S Crocker (USA) , S Sharma (Ind) , S Soderberg (Swe) , E Molinari (Ita) , N Bertasio (Ita) , D Borda (Esp) , D Lawson (Aus) , S Gallacher (Sco) , J Morrison (Eng) , G Forrest (Sco) , N Lemke (Swe) , R Langasque (Fra) , M Manassero (Ita) , V Dubuisson (Fra) , R McEvoy (Eng) , P Larrazábal (Esp) , F Bergamaschi (Ita) ,
73 S Hend (Aus) , S Brazel (Aus) , G Migliozzi (Ita) , P Waring (Eng) , T Bjørn (Den) , S Manley (Wal) , R Wattel (Fra) , B Ritthammer (Ger) , R Paratore (Ita) , D Gavins (Eng) , V Perez (Fra) , J Winther (Den) , M Kawamura (Jpn) , J Walters (RSA) , A Chesters (Eng) , J Choi (Kor) ,
74 R Fisher (Eng) , J Harding (RSA) , M Schwab (Aut) , R Gouveia (Por) , K Koivu (Fin) , D Burmester (RSA) , B Dredge (Wal) , N Elvira (Esp) , B Evans (Eng) , M Pavon (Fra) , T Pulkkanen (Fin) , P Dunne (Irl) ,
75 H Park (Kor) , A Quiros (Esp) , K Broberg (Swe) , I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) , M Southgate (Eng) , T Aiken (RSA) , L Herbert (Aus) , L Johnston (Sco) , P Langfors (Swe) , A Karlsson (Swe) , K Reitan (Nor) , D Fichardt (RSA) , D Howell (Eng) , C Shinkwin (Eng) , G Coetzee (RSA) , D Law (Sco) , G Green (Mas) , J Van Zyl (RSA) ,
76 M Siem (Ger) , H Porteous (RSA) , J Catlin (USA) , K Pratt (Aus) , J Lagergren (Swe) , C Jin (Chn) , A Wu (Chn) , G Fdez-Castaño (Esp) ,
77 J Singh Brar (Eng) , S Gregory (Eng) , M Warren (Sco) , S Chawrasia (Ind) , J Wang (Kor) , M Burrow (am) (Eng) ,
78 K Johannessen (Nor) , M Orrin (Eng) , O Fisher (Eng) ,
79 M Kinhult (Swe) , J Dantorp (Swe) , L Slattery (Eng) ,
82 A Al Rumhy (am) (Oma) ,
83 O Al Mulla (Ksa) ,
0 Z Lombard (RSA) , 0 H Leon (Chi) , 0 T Murray (Eng)
