Perth, Australia (SportsNetwork.com) - Australian John Wade and Thorbjorn Olesen both carded a course-record, 8-under 64 at Lake Karrinyup Country Club on Thursday and they share the lead after one round at the ISPS Handa Perth International.
Wade has never won on the European Tour and his only professional victory came on the European Challenge Tour in 2006. Olesen's lone win came at the 2012 Sicilian Open.
Australian Michael Sim, Sihwan Kim and Tom Lewis were all one shot away from tying the course record. They are tied for third after 6-under 66s on Thursday.
Perth native Brett Rumford and compatriots Matthew Griffin and Jason Scrivener are tied for seventh at 5-under 67 along with David Drysdale, Mark Foster, Julien Quesne and Magnus A. Carlsson.
Defending champion Jin Jeong finished the first round at even-par 72 and he is tied for 81st.
Wade got off to a hot start on the back nine as he birdied four of the first five holes from No. 10, with a par coming on No. 11. Wade got to 6-under through six holes when he made an eagle on the par-5 15th. He closed out his front nine with three straight pars.
Following two more pars on one and two, Wade rolled in his fifth birdie of the day on No. 3. Needing to play the final six holes at 1-under in order to break the course record, Wade made five pars and drained a birdie on No. 7 to accomplish that feat.
"I just got a fast start," said Wade. "I didn't play well last week, so wasn't a lot of form going in, but once I got a fast start, I had to think 'well, maybe I've turned it around a little bit.' I didn't really leave any out there. I got a couple of up-and-downs in and stuff like that, which helps your round, definitely."
Olesen also went bogey-free in his round and evenly distributed birdies on both the front and back nines. Olesen made three birdies in the first four holes from No. 1 and he poured another gain in on the par-5 seventh. He finished off the front nine with a pair of pars and Olesen made the turn at minus-4.
Three straight birdies got Olesen off to a roaring start on the back nine, getting him to minus-5. Like Wade, Olesen had to play his final six holes at 1-under to break the record, and he did just that with a birdie on 15 and five pars.
"I played really, really well, the front nine especially," Olesen said. "The back nine I hit a couple bad drives, but got a little bit lucky and got away with them. My short game was amazing out there. My chipping, bunker shots were really, really good, so I'm very pleased with the round."
NOTES: Wade and Olesen topped the previous course record of 65 held by Michael Hendry, Alejandro Canizares and Rumford. Hendry and Canizares did it in 2012, while Rumford tied the record last year ... Wade has played at this event the last two years. He missed the cut in 2012 and tied for 51st last year ... Anthony Brown (68) made a hole-in-one on the 148-yard, par-3 12th hole ... In his first event back since withdrawing from the PGA Championship due to a neck injury, Jason Dufner, the 2013 PGA Championship winner, shot a 2-under 70 and he is tied for 37th.
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