Martin Dempster's Day 1 Hero Dubai Desert Classic wrap

Transcript

00:00Hello, it's Martin Dempster, the Scotsman Golf Correspondent here, coming to you from

00:07a balcony on the Atlantis Royal, the main hotel for players, staff and media for this

00:18week's Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

00:21At the end of the opening day in the $9 million Rolex Series event, David Ford, a 22-year-old

00:29American amateur, who is playing here on an invitation, shares the lead after carding

00:36a 7-under par 65 to match morning efforts from Portugal's Ricardo Gouveia and the Australian

00:44David Micheluzzi.

00:45It was a good day for two of the seven Scots in the field, Callum Hill and Ewan Ferguson,

00:53both carded 5-under par 67s, in both cases they were playing with new equipment for the

00:592025 season, and both were delighted with their efforts on the Majulis course at Emirates

01:05Golf Club, where a number of players talked about how the pins had been tucked for the

01:11opening 18 holes.

01:13Rory McIlroy, who has bidden to win this event for the third year in a row, he opened with

01:18a 2-under par 70 later in the day, Scotland's number one Bob McIntyre, he picked up three

01:26birdies over this closing stretch to sign for a 1-under par 71, which was one more than

01:34the efforts from two of his experienced compatriots, Richie Ramsey and Scott Jameson.

01:41To keep up to date with everything in the golf world, log on to Scotsman.com or buy

01:46the Scotsman.