Top amateur golfer Foo steady in Cancun

Singapore's top amateur Gregory Foo was among 39 players to play sub-par on the first day of the Eisenhower Trophy in Cancun, Mexico, yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Foo (right) shot a 70 in the World Amateur Team Championships to be five strokes behind individual leader Connor Syme of Scotland and Adrian Meronk of Poland in a field of 171 players at the Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club.

With teammates Joshua Ho and Joshua Shou, both playing 76, Singapore are lying in tied-41st position (plus four) among 71 countries, with the best-of-two-scores to count.

Only five Asian teams are ahead of Singapore, namely Thailand (tied-fourth), Japan (tied-seventh), Taiwan (tied-16th), China (tied-34th) and South Korea (tied-38th).

Scotland lead the team standings on 10-under 134 with Syme (66) and Grant Forrest (68) forming a hot partnership, a stroke ahead of Australia (Cameron Davis on 67 and Harrison Endycott on 68).

Syme is the Australian Amateur champion while Forrest was a member of the 2015 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team. Their total is three off the United States' record of 131 set in 2012.

Syme carded a five-under 31 on his outward nine. He finished with seven birdies and one bogey.

Robert MacIntyre had a non-counting 69.

"The players know they have a good chance to do well here, and they are all pretty highly ranked in the world," said Scotland captain Claire Queen, whose team prepared for the hot and humid conditions in Orlando, Florida.

"It's been a really good first day, and that will give them more belief for the remainder of the championship."

"The key was to get it right off the tee, and then it would give you some chances," said Syme, who made birdies on four of his opening six holes.

"There're a few par-fives you can get up on, and my strength today was accuracy off the tee, so I had a lot of good opportunities."

Twenty-six teams broke par in the first round and 52 sub-par scores counted, the second-highest total in the competition's history.

The event is a biennial international amateur competition organised by the International Golf Federation, which comprises 147 national governing bodies in 141 countries and 22 professional members.

The competition, which is being held for the 30th time, is rotated among three geographic zones: Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe-Africa.

LEADERBOARD

Individual: 66: Afrian Meronk, Connor Syme. 67: Kazuki Higa, Mario Galiano, Cameron Davis, Paul McBride. 68: Matthias Schwab, Brad Dalke, Stefano Mazzoli, Grant Forrest, Jeremy Freiburghaus, Juan Alvarez, Harrison Ednycott.

Selected: 70: Gregory Foo. 76: Joshua Ho, Joshua Shou.

Team: 134: Scotland. 135: Australia. 136: Spain. 138: Thailand, Poland, Ireland.