Tommy Fleetwood is an amenable sort who won’t much mind being upstaged at the Betfred British Masters he’s hosting this week, especially because it’s after just one round and the identity of the lad who did the upstaging.
Matthew Jordan, an eleventh-hour invitee to the event an hour away from his home in that other golfing hotbed of North West England, Hoylake, shot a course record nine-under 63 at Hillside to claim an immediate two-shot advantage on the field on a wet, chilly but largely windless day.
He’s five ahead of Fleetwood, who despite being from the other side of the Mersey has closely followed the career of Jordan. The 23-year-old turned pro just last year after a fine amateur career that included Walker Cup honours in the same GB&I team as Scotland’s Connor Syme and Robert MacIntyre, as well as several amateur titles including the prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy in 2017.
Fleetwood didn’t pull any strings to get Jordan a start here – he left all invitations this week down to the tour – but he was clearly delighted that the boy from the Wirral had grabbed his chance so impressively.
“I’ve known him for a long time,” said Fleetwood, who recorded a very acceptable four-under 68 given his other hosting duties this week. “We all know in this area what he’s capable of.
“That’s a tremendous first round and I think it will be good for him now. I’ve seen some of his scores and he’s not played as well as I know he wants to this year, but when you’re first turning pro, it’s different, and now the experience being at the top of the leaderboard for a few days will be really, really good.”
Jordan presently doesn’t even have a Challenge Tour category for regular play, and only learned he was in the field on Sunday. Yesterday was the sort of thing that every new pro player struggling to get started dreams of, and puts him in position for a strong finish here that could establish him.
“I shot 10-under on the Challenge Tour two weeks ago, so I knew I was playing quite well,” said the soft-spoken Jordan, whose grandfather Anthony is an R&A member.
“I just tried to shoot as low as I could because I thought the other guys out there, they are pretty good as well. I just wanted to start well, set the rhythm of the round, and go from there.”
Like many in the field, he had his way with the front nine at the Southport links, where birdie chances were plentiful all day – Spain’s Nacho Elvira birdied all the first five holes and Lee Westwood six of the first seven. However unlike most Jordan sustained the charge on the tough and much-admired second nine, with four more birdies.
“It’s only 18 holes,” he was keen to point out. “I’m just going to do what I need to do now and kind of refocus, because I know it’s going to be tough tomorrow. I need to get into that mind-set to go again. It’s going to be a different day.”
Matt Wallace, much-fancied to make the next step this season after his gruelling, 32-tournament campaign in 2018 brought three wins and established him as a top 50 player, is probably the “real leader” at seven-under, tied for second with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, another contemporary of Jordan’s from his amateur days.
Westwood was becalmed after his blistering start but still came in with a handy 66 for a player who feels he’s seriously undercooked, playing only two events in the last two months. Robert Karlsson, the former Race to Dubai winner, is another on six-under alongside Scotland’s Richie Ramsay.
Scott Jamieson, despite battling a health issue he declined to elaborate on, is on three-under while in the final groups of the day MacIntyre, the Oban left-hander, came in with a four-under 68 to bounce back from only his second missed cut of his debut season, in Morocco two weeks ago.
