SERI KEMBANGAN: Malaysia players Gavin Green and Khavish Varadan came out firing in the opening round of the IRS Prima Malaysian Open at the The Mines Resort and Golf Club today.
Both players carded seven-under par 64 scores to place tied-fourth on the board, just two shots adrift of the top spot, which was shared by Jazz Janewattananond (Thailand) and Veer Ahlawat (India).
Canadian Richard T. Lee was third on eight-under 63.
Gavin, who birdied the second, third, sixth, 13th and 15th holes and eagled the 17th, said his statistics-based strategy paid off.
"It was a solid day, I did not make many big mistakes and gave myself a lot of chances. The main thing was to be consistent, which is something that my coach and I have been working on," said Gavin, who will turn 31 this year.
"It is very nice to stay bogey-free on this course, it was a bit tricky when the wind picked up, but we managed ourselves really well.
"Obviously being Malaysian, it would mean a lot to do well here, knowing that no Malaysian has ever won it (the title) before. I would kind of like to be the first one.
"But like I said, there is still a long way to go. The scores are super tight and everybody is going quite low.
"I have to keep my head down and just manage my way around it."
Khavish, 23, bagged nine birdies, but suffered bogeys on the first and 14th holes. He is hoping to remain in contention until the end of the week.
"I bogeyed the first today, but it is better to bogey the first on the first day than the last on the last day," said Khavish
"(On) the first day, you must always put yourself into position. I am normally not that good on the first days and am always catching up the last couple of days.
"The goal is to keep myself in position and that's what I did."
A total of 30 Malaysians are competing in the competition this year.
Nor Heikal Nor Hadi fired a five-under 66 to place tied-13th, while Ben Leong (three-under 68) was tied 37th.
Anson Yeo, Shaifubari Muda and Danial Faidz, all two-under 69, were tied-58th while Ervin Chang, R. Nachimuthu, Amir Nazrin and Paul San shared the 80th spot on one-under 70.