David Law has leaders in sights after birdie blitz in Kenya

Helped by a burst of five straight birdies around the turn at Karen Country Club in Nairobi, the 34-year-old Aberdonian set the clubhouse target with a seven-under-par 63 before seeing both Swede Niklas Lemke and South African Casey Jarvis beat his effort by a shot.

“Yeah, it was really good,” said Law of his day’s work, having made eight birdies in total and dropping a solitary shot at the par-4 15th. “Two under through eight holes was a pretty steady start and then I got on a nice little run around the turn, which was great.

“There are chances around that area of the golf course. I hit some good iron shots and holed some decent putts and, yeah, I am happy with the score.”

Law’s first outing at this week’s venue was in a Challenge Tour event in 2013 that featured Brooks Koepka while he’s also played it a number of times since then.

“This week it is slightly softer than what it’s been in the past, but I don’t think that really changes my course strategy,” he added.

“I think generally this is a golf course that you can’t try and overpower. So we were pretty conservative but smart off the tee. Just making sure we had second shots to the green. I think if your wedge play is good, then you can score around here.”

On his return to the main tour after winning twice on the HotelPlanner Tour last year, Law sits 151st in the Race to Dubai Ranking, having missed the cut in all three of the Desert Swing events.

Referring to a break in the schedule last week coinciding with some gloomy weather back in Scotland, he said: “It’s not ideal but, at the same time, you can work on things that you might not necessarily work on if you were on the golf course.

“I wasn’t too happy with my game after the Middle East Swing, so it gave me a week to work on things technically and try to come in this week and not do too much on the technical side of things. Yeah, it’s been good.”

Calum Hill, who finished second in both Bahrain and Qatar, carded five birdies in his 67, one less than Scott Jamieson after the Florida-based player signed off with an eagle at the 18th.

Euan Walker and Cameron Adam also broke par with matching 69s, but Daniel Young (70), Connor Syme (71) and Ewen Ferguson (72) will all start the second round below the projected cut line.

Elsewhere, Gemma Dryburgh opened her 2026 with an eagle and went on to card a six-under-par 66 to sit one shot off the lead after the opening round in the Honda LPGA Thailand event.