Rafael Gomez
Niall Kearney fired five birdies on the opening day of the Abierto Internacional Cope Antioquia in Colombia and finished in share of 9th place with a 68 after bogeys on the 2nd and 15th holes to trail the leader by three shots.
Rafael Gomez, a two-time Challenge Tour champion, set the early clubhouse target in the second event of the 2011 season.
The Argentine, who won twice in 2005 to graduate to The European Tour the following year, picked up seven birdies with a solitary bogey in a round of six under par 65 to edge ahead of the field at Club Campestre La Macarena near Medellin, in Colombia.
Starting at the tenth, Gomez made a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th before his momentum was temporarily halted by a bogey on the 15th. But he reignited his round on his back nine with another burst of three successive birdies from the third before taking the outright lead with a birdie four on the par five eighth hole.
The Colombian pair of Alvaro Pinedo and José Manuel Garrido, Argentina's Pablo del Grosso and American Will Wilcox all shot five under par 66s to lie one behind with another pair from the home nation, Alvaro Jose Arizabaleta and Santiago Rivas, and Swede Peter Gustafsson a further shot back on four under par.
Gustafsson, the leading European in the event co-sanctioned with the Tour de las Americas, has a particularly impressive record in this event, winning the title in 2009 before it formed part of the Challenge Tour Schedule, and finishing in fourth place at last year’s event. Gustafsson’s round of 67 featured six birdies and two bogeys.
Colombia’s David Venagaes got his defence of the title off to a steady start with level par 71.
Players from 25 different nations are represented in the 29th event co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and Tour de las Americas, vying for a prize fund of $250,000.
