Espen Kofstad took inspiration from his playing partner, 2014 Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, as the Norwegian stormed into the first round lead at the ISPS Handa Wales Open thanks to a seven under par round of 64.<\/p>\n
The 26 year old, who finished as the number one player on the Challenge Tour last year to secure his European Tour card, carded a stunning back nine of 29 at The Celtic Manor Resort, which included three birdies and an eagle in the final four holes.<\/p>\n
On the day Kofstad joined playing partners McGinley and John Parry in launching the points race for The 2014 Ryder Cup, he finished in a style worthy of such an occasion, holing out from the greenside bunker at 18 to the delight of the onlooking spectators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just inspiring to be here I think,\u201d said Kofstad. \u201cIt’s Celtic Manor, the Ryder Cup has been here, and playing with Paul too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just all inspiring stuff. Paul has been a really good player on The European Tour and it’s nice to feed off his experience a little bit because he’s a very calm, collected character and it was just a good group to be in this morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been very, very calm the last two weeks. I have started to settle down on The European Tour a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I wasn’t nervous and it felt really easy. I kept hitting the shots and they came off in the end. I got a little lucky I suppose holing a long putt on the 17th and the bunker shot on the last. I was just trying to get it ten or 15 feet past the hole because it was a tough shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be great to play in the Ryder Cup, although I can’t really expect a spot, but I put in a decent application today!\u201d<\/p>\n
Kofstad was two shots clear of the chasing pack, with England\u2019s Chris Wood in a tie for second place on five under alongside Australian Richard Green, who put in the best round of the afternoon with a 66 in much tougher conditions.<\/p>\n
Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Espen Kofstad took inspiration from his playing partner, 2014 Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, as the Norwegian stormed into the first round lead at the ISPS Handa Wales Open thanks to a seven under par round of 64. The 26 year old, who finished as the number one player on the Challenge Tour last year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t