Thailand’s Varanyu Rattanaphiboonkij posted a flawless six-under-par 65 to take the early lead in the Aramco Invitational at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Saudi Arabia today.

The 26-year-old Thai, winner of the Singha Classic on the All Thailand Golf Tour earlier this year, posted three birdies on each nine to edge into a slender lead in the US$125,000 Asian Development Tour event.

The early clubhouse leader, Saudi golfer Othman Almulla, started in the morning wave and despite a couple of early bogeys, made use of his local knowledge to pick up six shots on the back nine.

“Obviously, I’m so, so happy that we’re playing at my home course and I wanted to start really well. I didn’t start amazing on the front nine, I missed a couple of putts and made the turn at one over.

“I thought, I know this place, so I just need to keep giving myself chances. Some of the putts started to go in and I finished really strongly,” he recalled.

“I was sad to miss the Saudi Open for family reasons, so I felt like we needed to do something really nice this week.”

Othman Ibrahim Almulla

He said he was excited for Aramco and Rolling Hills to host their first international tournament, and how it meant a lot to him and other golfers in Saudi Arabia as part of the development of the sport in the Kingdom.

“It means a lot. I’ve been super lucky to be supported by Golf Saudi and Aramco since I was a young kid. I grew up playing golf here and have seen how they support sports and get people engaged with outdoor activities,” he said.

“They were one of the first real supporters of this transformation in the Kingdom with sport, from the first Saudi iInternational and then for them to support ADT as well, it provides a really cool platform for the best Asian players to come and develop and move up to the bigger ranks.”

“It just goes to show that when you get good organization and strong companies supporting the youth and the good talent, really cool things can happen,” he added.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing many, many young boys and girls from Saudi Arabia also playing and hopefully aspiring to be professional golfers soon.”

Also posting a five-under-par score of 66 were Thailand’s Suttijet Kooratanapisan, who dropped a single shot on the 10th hole, and Jarand Ekeland Arnoy of Norway.

Arnoy, who finished strongly at the PIF Saudi Open last week, had a more eventful day, with four bogeys offset by seven birdies and an eagle on the par 5 12th hole.

A shot back on 67, Thai golfers Sarun Sirithon, Pisitchai Thippong and Witchayanon Chothirunrungrueng lead a group in fifth, including England’s Barnes Wallis and Order of Merit contender Chen Guxin of China, who missed last week’s PIF Saudi Open.

Dodge Kemmer of the USA, winner of the season-opening Gurugram Challenge in March, and Malaysia’s Khor Kheng Hwai, rounded out the group on four-under-par.

In 12th place, on three-under, a group of nine players includes last week’s winner Naraadjie E Ramadhanputra and the leading amateur in the field, El Mehdi Fakori of Morocco.

Ramadhanputra, who moved up into third place in the OOM following his win at the PIF Saudi Open, could be poised to make a late charge if he does well this week.

He currently leads OOM front runner Suteepat Prateeptienchai by a stroke while his other contenders – Chonlatit Chuenboonngam in second and Shariffuddin Ariffin in fourth – both scored par today.