VIVENDI CUP

Edfors leads in Paris with an 11-under-par 61

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE

Padraig Harrington grabbed seven birdies and yet still found himself seven shots off the lead after the opening day of the Vivendi Cup in Paris.

Left as the only member of next week's Ryder Cup side in the field after the withdrawal of Swede Peter Hanson with a chest infection, Harrington signed for a four-under-par 68.
But an hour later Swede Johan Edfors completed a 61 which equalled the low round of the European Tour season and knocked two strokes off his best score on the circuit.
Edfors had five birdies in an outward 31 and then started for home with three more birdies and an eagle.
The Tour's first-ever 59 was a possibility at that stage, but the former Scottish Open and British Masters champion bogeyed the next before finishing with two more birdies.
It gave him a two-shot lead over England's David Dixon, while the scoring was such that Harrington did not even make the top 20.
Originally hoping to be in Atlanta for the Tour Championship and its amazing £7.2million jackpot, controversial wild card pick Harrington fell out of the FedEx Cup play-offs at the halfway stage and decided to add this far smaller event to his schedule.
He was three under after six, but mixed three bogeys with his four other birdies playing alongside his older brother Fergal in the pro-am format. 

FIRST-ROUND SCORES AT TWO COURSES
Marly Course
Par 72
61 Johan Edfors (Swe)
63 David Dixon
64 John Parry, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra).
65 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Todd Hamilton (USA), Kenneth Ferrie
66 Paul Waring, Francois Delamontagne (Fra)
67 Scott Strange (Aus), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
68 Martin Wiegele (Aut), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington, Gregory Havret (Fra)
69 Sam Hutsby, Gary Clark, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Benn Barham, Phillip Price, Peter Baker, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)
70 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Gary Lockerbie, Marco Ruiz (Par), Robert Rock, Steve Webster, Andrew Marshall, Francois Calmels (Fra)
71 Jamie McLeary, Adam Gee, Luis Claverie (Spa), Adrien Bernadet (Fra), Tano Goya (Arg), Mark Brown (Nzl), Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
72 Kenny le Sager (Fra), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), David Vanegas (Col), Christophe Brazillier (Fra)
73 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Andrea Maestroni (Ita), Ake Nilsson (Rsa), Rudy Thuillier (Fra), Carl Suneson (Spa), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa)
74 Chris Wood, Jean-Nicolas Billot (Fra), Charles-Edouard Russo (Fra)
75 Stephan Gross junior (Ger), James Ruth
76 Scott Drummond, Manuel Quiros (Spa)
78 Matthieu Van Hauwe (Fra)


Retz Course

65 Chris Gane, Julien Guerrier (Fra)

66 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Mark F Haastrup (Den), Andrew McArthur, James Morrison

67 Michiel Bothma (Rsa), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Peter Whiteford, Fabien Marty (Fra)
68 George Coetzee (Rsa), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Richard Green (Aus), Phillip Archer, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)
69 Gary Murphy, Joost Luiten (Ned), Alastair Forsyth, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg)
70 Christian Cevaer (Fra), Callum Macaulay, Andrew Tampion (Aus), Rick Kulacz (Aus), David Howell, Thomas Bjorn (Den), Steven O'Hara
71 Jamie Elson, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Sion E Bebb, Robert Coles, Soren Hansen (Den), Richard McEvoy, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Anthony Snobeck (Fra)
72 Gary Boyd, Liam Bond, Andrew Coltart, Victor Dubuisson (Fra)
73 Christian Nilsson (Swe), Marc Warren, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Julien Quesne (Fra)
74 Damien Perrier (Fra), Sam Little, Miles Tunnicliff, Peter Lawrie
75 Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe), Marco Soffietti (Ita), Nick Dougherty
76 Niclas Fasth (Swe), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Simon Thornton
77 Ghislain Rosier (Fra), Victor Riu (Fra)
79 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den)
80 Oliver Fisher
WD: Peter Hanson (Swe)

PETER WHITEFORD WINS 6,000 EUROS PRO-AM PRIZE

Scotland's Peter Whiteford won the team competition at the Vivendi Cup with his amateur partner James Devane on 21 under par, one shot clear of South Africa’s George Coetzee and his amateur Alexander Levy.

Whiteford, pictured, and Devane carded net rounds of 62 and 61 and Golf de Joyenval in Paris to take the first prize of €6,000.

Coetzee and Levy posted two rounds of 62 to finish second with Major Champion Todd Hamilton and his partner Marc Nayfilyan third on 19 under par.