Spain’s Victor Pastor produced a flawless display of precision golf to take the opening-round lead at the Hangzhou Open with a sizzling nine-under-par 63 at the Hangzhou West Lake Golf Club.
The 30-year-old Spaniard carded nine birdies without a single bogey, finishing one stroke ahead of China’s Xinjun Zhang, who sits alone in second place.
Starting from the first hole, Pastor made his intentions clear early, picking up three birdies in his first four holes. He then added back-to-back gains to make the turn in just 31 strokes. A birdie on the par-five tenth was followed by three more on the back nine, capping off a round that left him alone atop the leaderboard.
“Today I played amazing,” Pastor said. “Even my misses were good, so I’m really happy with the way I played. I’ll try to repeat it tomorrow and over the weekend. I did everything really well out there had a great start, hit good shots, and made a couple of putts early on.”
Pastor entered the penultimate event of the Road to Mallorca season ranked 56th, with only the top 45 players earning a spot in the Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada. The Spaniard knows a strong finish this week is essential to keep his promotion hopes to the DP World Tour alive.
“I know I need a great result this week to make it to Mallorca, and this is a great start,” he added. “If someone gives you nine birdies to start the tournament, you’ll take it. It’s the perfect way to begin.”
England’s James Morrison and Austria’s Lukas Nemecz share third place at seven under, with England’s Tom Lewis, South Africa’s Bryce Easton, and China’s Bowen Chai one shot further back. Spanish pair Adri Arnaus and Sebastian Garcia, Sweden’s Albin Bergstrom, and Peru’s Julian Perico are tied for seventh at five under par.
The second round tees off at 6:30 a.m. local time, with Pastor paired alongside Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Tseng Huang and Sweden’s Albin Bergstrom at 12:10 p.m.
About the HotelPlanner Tour
The HotelPlanner Tour, formerly the Challenge Tour, had its first official season in 1989, and has developed into a proven training ground, where the champions-in-waiting compete across the globe for a place on the DP World Tour.
Many players who have progressed from the HotelPlanner Tour have gone on to become Major Champions including Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick and Brooks Koepka and Ryder Cup stars, such as Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Nicolai Højgaard and Tyrrell Hatton.
Using its vast international schedule and relationships with golf federations and PGAs, the HotelPlanner Tour is widely accessible to professionals from across the globe, giving players from developing golfing nations the opportunity to test their skill amongst some of the most talented up and coming stars in world golf.
HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology company, has been the title partner of the HotelPlanner Tour since the start of the 2025 season.
About the European Tour group
The European Tour group administers the DP World Tour, the HotelPlanner Tour, the Legends Tour and the G4D Tour and, as the Managing Partner of Ryder Cup Europe LLP, stages golf’s greatest team contest, the Ryder Cup, in partnership with the PGA of America.
The European Tour group has Strategic Partnerships with the PGA TOUR, the Sunshine Tour, the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association (CGA), the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO), the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association (KPGA), and the TATA Steel Professional Golf Tour of India. These partnerships provide global pathways for players from across the world to compete internationally on the DP World Tour, the main men’s professional golf Tour of the European Tour group which was established in 1972, as well as the HotelPlanner Tour.
