Playing his first world-ranked tournament in nearly six years, Brad Dalke opened the DP World Tour’s BMW International Open with a 3-under 69 on Thursday in Munich.
Dalke, the 28-year-old former prodigy turned YouTuber, is five shots off the lead, which is shared by Jayden Schaper and Hennie du Plessis, though Dalke sits comfortably inside the cut line thanks to four birdies in his first 12 holes and some clutch par saves late.
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Dalke’s opening round at Golfclub München Eichenried nearly included a hole-in-one on the par-3 second hole, where Dalke’s tee shot from 230 yards just missed the right side of the cup before settling a few feet past. He added a couple birdie tap-ins at the par-4 ninth and par-5 11th holes before draining a 34-footer for birdie at the par-3 12th.
After a bogey at the par-4 14th, Dalke got a 30-foot par save to fall at the par-4 15th. He then got up and down for par from right of the right greenside bunker at the par-3 17th, rolling in a 15-footer in the process. He rinsed his final tee shot at the par-5 18th before hitting his third shot to 70 yards and leaving himself just 3 feet for par, which he converted.
Dalke’s 69 bested the likes of Sergio Garcia (71), Casey Jarvis (71), Patrick Reed (72) and Eugenio Chacarra (72), among others.
This is just Dalke’s sixth world-ranked start in his career. He missed the cut at the 2016 Valero Texas Open before missed cuts at the 2017 Masters and U.S. Open, which he qualified for via his U.S. Amateur runner-up finish to Curtis Luck. Three years later, Dalke, who graduated from Oklahoma in 2019, made his first professional cut on the LocalIQ Series two weeks before missing the weekend at the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2020 Evans Scholars Invitational, which was his most recent world-ranked appearance.
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