Pepperell, Rai and Havret call the shots

Doha: English duo Eddie Pepperell and Aaron Rai, and France’s Gregory Havret lead with a seven under par 65 after the first round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters at Doha Golf Club on Thursday.

Pepperell made birdies on second, fifth, seventh, tenth, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th and had a bogey in 13th while Havret had seven birdies, including five in six holes from the sixth. Rai, meanwhile, had birdies on the first, sixth, ninth, 12th and 16th before making an eagle on the par five last.

“I've made some changes this week with personnel so I've been working on a couple of new things and I surprised myself out there with how well I managed to trust it,” said Pepperell.

England's Oliver Fisher, Italy’s Edoardo Molinari, Alvaro Quiros of Spain and German Marcel Schneider are right behind the leading trio, with a six under par 66.

While Molinari had a run of seven birdies in ten holes, Schneider shone on the second, sixth, tenth, 12th, 14th and 16th.

Quiros too had an unblemished round with birdies on the first, third, seventh, tenth, 14th and last.

Belgian Thomas Detry, American Sean Crocker, Italian Lorenzo Gagli, German Sebastian Heisele, Finn Mikko Ilonen, Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and England's Joshua White were at five under, with 24 players including defending champion Jeunghun Wang and two-time winner Paul Lawrie, at four under.

Qatar’s Ali Al Shershani could not do much and had to settle for one over par 73, the same as India’s SSP Chaurasia who would be disappointed with his efforts. Pakistan’s Ahmed Baig, who won the recent Qatar Amateur Open to book his place in the tournament was two over par, while Qatar’s Ali Saleh Al Kaabi was a further two shots behind.

Qatar Masters 2011 champion Thomas Bjorn, had a first round to forget as five bogeys leave him in joint 132nd position.