DEAR AND KELLETT SHARE THIRD PLACE IN MOROCCO

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Murrayshall's Gavin Dear opened his season with a nine-hole brilliance that brought back memories of his amateur glory days when he covered the first nine holes in only 30 shots at the Alps Tour's Palmeraie Open in Morocco's
Red City of Marrakesh.
Dear, pictured by courtesy of Tom Ward Photography, had an eagle 3 at the seventh and birdies at the first, long second, third and short eighth to stand six under par.
But he could manage only one further birdie, at the long 16th, sandwiched between his only bogeys of the day, at the 15th and 18th. But a five-under-par 67 sat him alonside compatriot Ross Kellett in joint second place, only one shot behind the joint leaders, France's Sebastian Gros and American Timothy O'Neal.
Kellett started with a bogey but that was the only blemish on his 67 which saw him birdie the long second, third, long seventh, ninth, 13th and long 16th.
Peterhead's Philip McLean, having his first competitive round of the year apart from North-east Alliance fixtures, acquitted himself well with a 70 (37-33) for a share of 17th place. McLean birdied the first, 10th, short 11th and 18t, offset by bogeys at the long second and fifth.
Fellow Buchan rookie pro Kris Nicol (Fraserubrgh) is sharing 25th place on 71 (36-35) after a strong finish with birdies at the long 16th and 18th.

LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Par 72. Yardage: 6,796
66 Sebastian Gros (Fra)), Timothy O'Neal (US).
67 Gavin Dear (Sco), Ross Kellett (Sco), Matthieu Bey (Fra), Niccolo Quintarelli (Ita).
68 Jack Clarke (Eng).
Selected scores
69 Richard Kilpatrick (NIr), Matthew Cryer (Eng), Jack Senior (Eng), Gareth Shaw (Ire) (T8).
70 Philip McLean (Sco), Andrew Cooley (Eng) (T17).
71 Kris Nicol (Sco) (T25).
72 Warren Harmston (Eng) (T37).
73 Dara Lernihan (Ire) (T49).
74 Stiggy Hodgson (Eng), Steven Brown (Eng) (T60).
77 Brendan McCarroll (Ire) (T83).
Field of 96 players.