DOHA, Qatar — Eddie Pepperell, Gregory Havret, and Aaron Rai made the most of calm early morning conditions at Doha Golf Club to set the pace in the opening round of the Qatar Masters at 7-under-par 65 on Thursday.
Havret went bogey free, Pepperell made one bogey and eight birdies, while fellow English golfer Rai eagled his last hole to add to five birdies.
One shot behind the leaders were four players, including former Ryder Cup player Edoardo Molinari of Italy and former champion Alvaro Quiros of Spain.
Defending champion Wang Jeunghun of South Korea started with a 68, and Race to Dubai leader Shubhankar Sharma of India shot 69 despite a double bogey on the 15th hole.
Pepperell, who is fast gaining a reputation on the European Tour for his irreverent tweets and meaningful blogs, showed his clubs can also do an equal amount of talking after missing cuts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Malaysia.
Pepperell birdied Nos. 10, 11, 14, 16 and 18 with a single blemish on 13 after starting on the back nine. He made three more birdies on his back nine.
He was joined on top of the leaderboard by Havret, who made five birdies in six holes from the sixth, and Rai, who eagled the last.
"I surprised myself, really," said Pepperell, who finished third in Portugal and Netherlands last year.
"I’ve made some changes this week with personnel, so I’ve been working on a couple of new things and I surprised myself out there with how well I managed to trust it.
"I hit some quality tee shots, that’s the area I feel that I’ve been struggling with a bit lately. We had a good time.
"It’s definitely a bigger picture for me this week than tomorrow and indeed the weekend. I’m not overly-fussed about my early season form.
Molinari, a three-time champion on the tour including last year in Morocco, started with eight straight pars, and then made seven birdies in his last 10 holes, including a chip-in for birdie on the last.
"I hit every green apart from the last one. I hit a lot of fairways, I had a lot of chances for birdie," said Edoardo, the older brother of U.S. PGA Tour star Francesco.
"Last week in Oman, I had a decent week, I had a bad first round and then three very good rounds. It’s been the case for the last few weeks so my focus this week was to try and get a good start."
Oliver Fisher of England was the best among the afternoon groups with a 6-under 66, joining Molinari, Quiros and Germany’s Marcel Schneider in a tie for fourth.
