After slumping to a world ranking of 146, Australian golfer Marcus Fraser is glad to be contending with the stars at the World Golf Championship in Mexico City.
The 38-year-old Fraser, who represented Australia with Scott Hend at the Rio Olympics last year, signed for a gutsy even-par 71 during Thursday's opening round.
In a star-studded field featuring 49 of the world's top 50 golfers, Fraser sits only four shots back of a six-way tie for the lead that includes five-time major champion Phil Mickelson.
Corowa-product Fraser braved Club de Golf Chapultepec's altitude of 2400 metres above sea level to take leading Australian honours, with defending champion Adam Scott struggling after shooting 73.
"I've been lucky enough to play a few WGC events and any time you do play well in these fields you know you're doing something right," said Fraser.
"There are so many great players here and it was really tough to process my distances in this altitude, so to shoot even par is a satisfying result."
Fraser, who earned his start at the 77-man event courtesy of finishing second on the 2016 Asian Tour order of merit, hopes a good result in Mexico will catapult him to a better season on the European Tour.
"I haven't played well for a while, and it hasn't been a great start to this year either," said Fraser.
"I'm playing the India Open next week and then I go back to Australia for five weeks off.
"Hopefully I can have a good result here in Mexico and get ready for a really busy stretch in Europe after May."
Share
