By Armstrong Vas

DOHA (Qat): Doha-based Ruan Jordaan shot one under par 74 to head the leaderboard on the first day at the 39th Qatar Open Amateur Championship on Thursday.

Jordaan overcame tough blustery conditions to finish ahead of the 108 golfers.

The South African is followed by Qatar national team member Ali Al Shahrani while another Doha-based golfer Mike Elliott of the USA is in the third spot.

“It was very windy out there. It was a tough day, but I’m happy with my scores. I was playing after a long time. What I achieved was good,” said Elliott, who is a coach at the Doha Golf Club.

The three-day championship is held on individual stroke play format, and the field will be reduced to just 60 players at end of the second day’s play on Friday.

The winner will qualify for the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, a European Tour event, from March 11 to 14 at the Education City Golf Club.

Tom Sweigart, Pratyush Jain, Iain Stewart, David Moreland, Jordan Massey, Kohei Noguchi, Sam Wall, Kittisak Sang-Orn, Simon Nsubuga, Christian Prambs JR, Saleh Al Kaabi, Abdulrahman Al Shahrani, Chris Corcelles, Jack McGuire, Anwar Ali, Saad Kazi and Arnav Jain are likely to improve their positions on the second day.

Leaderboard after 1st day’s play:

Ruan Jordaan (-1) 73, Ali Al Shahrani (1) 74, Mike Elliott (4) 75, Tom Sweigart (-1) 75, Pratyush Jain (2) 77, Iain Stewart (7) 77, David Moreland (6) 78, Jordan Massey (3) 79, Kohei Noguchi (4) 79, Sam Wall (2) 79.