ISPS HANDA - CHAMPIONSHIP - Day one digest

Everything you need to know from day one in Japan.

There was a five-way tie at the top, Ren Yonezawa hit a perfect shot, Matthieu Pavon was putting on a show (with a little advice from his caddie) and we had an unexpected spectator on day one of the ISPS HANDA - CHAMPIONSHIP.

Here is everything you need to know from Thursday at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course.

Tied at the top

Yannik Paul joined a trio of local favourites in the clubhouse lead after a fog-affected day. Nearly three hours was lost to fog early in the morning but when play got under way, German Paul posted a 65 to sit at five under alongside Japan's Tomoyo Ikemura, Taisei Shimizu and Taiki Yoshida. Another local favourite in Taiga Nagano was also at five under with seven holes remaining, with only two of the afternoon groups having completed their rounds. Japanese trio Yuki Inamori, Ryosuke Kinoshita and Keita Nakajima were in the clubhouse at four under alongside China's Li Haotong, South African Casey Jarvis, Swede Sebastian Söderberg and Scot Connor Syme. The first round will resume at 06.30 on day two, with all second round tee times subject to a one-hour delay.

Chase the ace

Yonezawa made the tenth hole-in-one of the season as he holed a six iron from 188 yards on the par-three 13th. He will head into round two at one under.

A real pea-souper

All of us amateur golfers have been guilty of it: "Surely they can play in this? I've played in worse than that." Not sure anyone could make that claim on Thursday. A foggy day in Gotemba town led to a 2hr 50m delay to all tee times.

On a string

Pavon is the highest-ranked player in the field for a reason. Look at this.

Woody has a word

Mark Sherwood became Pavon's caddie in September 2023 and since then the Frenchman has won on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR and risen to 21st on the Official World Golf Ranking. The duo clearly have an excellent relationship, to the point that the Englishman is not scared to stop his boss in his backswing if he thinks he can help him get the right shot.

An interested spectator

You don't see this on every practice putting green. Birds, dogs, the odd squirrel, yes. But a T-Rex?