Frenchman Adrien Mörk stormed into the lead of the European Challenge Tour’s Tikida Hotels Agadir Moroccan Classic with a stunning finish of five birdies on the spin at the Golf du Soleil in Agadir, enabling him to post an opening score of eight under par 63 and leap ahead of the first round pack.
Despite a bogey on the 12th hole, where he found trouble in the trees, Mörk was putting together a notable round at three under par after 13 holes. About an hour and a half – and five birdies – later, the 26 year old’s round had gone form being just ‘notable’ to grabbing all the headlines.
Mörk put on a fanstastic display of imaginative iron play to leave himself five birdie chances from no less than two metres, and he rewarded his sterling approach play by rolling in every one of his birdie chances over the closing holes.
That left him on eight under par, two clear of his nearest challenger, Spain’s Juan Parron, with Spain’s Rafael Cabrera Bello, Argetine Cesar Monasterio, Welshman Mark Pilkington, Austria’s Clemens Prader and the Italian, Michele Reale, a further stroke back.
“It was a good day at the office for me,” said Mörk . “It was good to be four under par for the front nine after a I had chipped in for an eagle on the seventh.
“Then I took the wrong line on th 12th when I put my ball in the trees and had to chip out which made me miss my par, but after that it was great. It just felt like everything I looked at I was going to hole.
“It was a great finish, one of those days when you don’t want to stop playing! It’s a great start for me, and now I have to try and go out tomorrow and give myself chances on the greens again. If you do that you just hope that you can read the same lines as I saw today.”
Mörk , who graduated University in Louisiana with a marketing degree in 2004, is looking for his second professional victory in Morocco, having won the Trophée Maroc at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam on the Alps Tour last year.
It was there that Mörk met his caddie for this week and he is hoping that the same man can carry him to success on the Challenge Tour.
“My caddie this week, Mohamed, carried my bag last year when I won at Dar Es Salam, and when I saw that I was coming to Agadir for the Challenge Tour event I called him and asked if he wanted to do it again," explained Mörk.
“He was great when I won last year and he was excellent again today. He reads the Moroccan greens so well and that is a big help.”
