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The first day of competition at Le Golf
National southwest of the French capital drew a buoyant crowd
who roared on home pair Victor Perez and Matthieu Pavon.
The 60 contenders will all play four rounds in a stroke play
format at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue.
The weather, a talking point of the Paris Games, shaped the day,
with warm morning sunshine giving way to unsettled afternoon
conditions that caused two interruptions of play due to
lightning risks.
The first round was concluded about an hour later than scheduled
at about 7 pm (1700 GMT).
Matsuyama, the former Masters champion who just missed out on
bronze on home soil three years ago in a playoff, posted an
eight under par 63, putting Asia's top-ranked player two ahead
of Schauffele, whose 65 featured seven birdies and one bogey.
Schauffele, who won last month's British Open to claim his
second major title this year, credited himself with steadying
his game after a "clanky" start.
"It's Thursday so I'm not really sweating it too much," he told
reporters.
Tied in third place at five under were Chile's Joaquin Niemann,
Argentina's Emiliano Grillo and South Korea's Tom Kim.
U.S. world number one Scottie Scheffler was in touch at four
under after playing alongside Ireland’s world number three Rory
McIlroy who finished on three under.
Perez hit the opening tee-shot at 9 am (0700 GMT) to huge
applause, with the atmosphere reaching its peak as fellow
Frenchman Pavon arrived to the sound of the crowd bellowing out
La Marseillaise.
"I was surprised there were a lot of people out here. Victor was
in front of me and you could tell how they were cheering for
him. It was pretty cool for the first day," Niemann told
reporters.
Perez reached the clubhouse at one under while Pavon finished
level-par.
The Paris tournament extends golf's short history at the Games,
with the sport having returned to the programme in Rio in 2016
after a century-long absence.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz,Editing by Christian Radnedge and Ed
Osmond) [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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