Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo - Day one digest

Everything you need to know from the opening round at The Belfry Hotel & Resort.

Four players shared the lead while the home favourites put on a show for their adoring fans on day one of the 2025 Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo.

Here is everything you need to know from the opening round at The Belfry Hotel & Resort.

Four-way tie at the top

Haotong Li reeled off four successive birdies on the back nine to sit in a four-way tie for the lead alongside Matthias Schwab, Thomas Aiken and Marcel Siem on six under par. Afternoon starter Li finished with a flourish as he picked up shots at the 14th, 15th 16th and 17th to join the lead, with Siem making it a quartet at the top late in the day.

Schmidt makes amazing ace

Ben Schmidt gave his home crowd something to cheer as he holed his tee-shot at the par-three 14th from 182 yards with an eight iron. His ball took a few hops on the green before trickling into the hole, prompting a £50,000 donation from Betfred to Official Charity Partner Guide Dogs. He said: "That's absolutely fantastic. It's great to give back. I was happy it was on that hole."

Penge lands extraordinary eagle

Last week's winner Marco Penge produced a strong shot-of-the-day contender at the par-four tenth as he sent his tee-shot to four feet to set up a magnificent eagle. Check this out...

Wallace sees hard work paying off

Matt Wallace got off to a lightning-fast start as he made four birdies in his first five holes on his way to a bogey-free 68. Even though he then made 13 straight pars to finish his round, the Englishman was focusing on the positives. He said: "The way I hit it compared to the end of last week (was the biggest positive). So the work that I put in at the start of this week is good and shows that I can turn it around, which is the same as what happened at The Open, really, bad Sunday at The Open, then played really well the next week. But I'm very happy with the ball striking and the way I played today and hit many greens."

Rai's stunning start

Local lad Aaron Rai kicked off his round by holing this sensational 46-foot putt for a birdie at the first. It's fair to say the crowd enjoyed it.