Mexican golfers Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz shared on Thursday the fourth place of the first round of the golf tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Games after the half of their rounds.
The first provisional position was occupied by the Austrian Sepp Straka with seven under par on his first 16 holes at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, near Saitama.
After the Austrian, number 161 in the world ranking, the Belgian Thomas Pieters and the Danish Joachim Hansen shared second place, with -4.
Behind them was a group of five players in fourth place with -3, among them the Mexicans Ortiz and Ancer and the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama.
Ortiz, who in 2020 was the first Mexican to win a PGA title in 42 years, and Ancer had already completed their first 12 holes and Matsuyama had 10.
This year, Matsuyama was the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam with his unexpected triumph at the Augusta Masters and he is Japan’s great hope for a medal in the sport.
The Colombian Sebastián Muñoz, for his part, was located in the tenth shared place, with -2, after 13 holes, like the Spanish Adri Arnaus.
Young Chilean golfer Joaquín Niemann, winner of a PGA tournament, was 17th with -1 in 11 holes.
The American Collin Morikawa, world number three and winner of the last British Open, began his round with three holes in par.
Morikawa, the flaming new golf star with two ‘Majors’ titles at the age of 24, is one of the great favorites for the medal in Tokyo, especially after the losses of the first two in the world ranking, the Spanish Jon Rahm and the American Dustin Johnson.
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