Thursday, July 07, 2016

Henry and Law break 70 on opening day


Kiwi Fox equals course record as he leads 

 in Slovakia Challenge


FROM THE CHALLENGE TOUR WEBSITE
Ryan Fox tied the course record as his bogey-free seven under par opening round of 65 gave him a one-shot lead at the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge around Senica’s Penati Golf Resort.
The New Zealander took full advantage of perfect conditions around the stunning Jack Nicklaus-designed Legend Course, birdieing the 18th with a lengthy putt to better the earlier 66 of Romain Langasque.
Since returning to the European Challenge Tour three weeks ago at the Najeti Open, Fox has immediately found his best form, following a seventh place in France with a runner-up finish in Scotland, and he is relishing being in contention to win tournaments again.
“I played really nicely today,” said the 29 year old. “I probably hit a couple of bad wedge shots that I got away with on the green by holing some nice putts but the rest of the day was really solid.
“I drove the ball really nicely – it’s nice and wide out there but you can still put yourself in trouble if you hit bad tee shots, so overall it was a pretty stress-free day.
“There’s a little bit of thinking round a few holes, a handful of tricky tee shots out there, but the rest of it really suits the longer guys like me if you can keep it in play, and I managed to do that quite nicely today.
“The Najeti Open was probably a little bit scrappy but I played really smart around there, and then I played really nicely in Scotland – it was nice to see some putts fall and nice to keep it out of the long stuff for the most part.
“Being in contention on the Sunday and hitting some good shots down the stretch was definitely a nice place to be again – I really enjoyed that feeling because it’s been a while since I’ve been in it.
“I’ve put myself in the best position possible for later in the week and hopefully I can go out tomorrow and put another score down early and be in with a chance over the weekend.
“This course suits my style because I like making birdies – I don’t know too many golfers that don’t. You get a lot of wedges around here and on the majority of the greens, if you hit good shots you get rewarded. You might have to be brave to take them on, but you can hit a lot of shots close.
“I really enjoy that way of playing golf – feeding it in off slopes to get it close and playing aggressive, so this is a great golf course for me and really fun to play.”
Langasque was the pick of the morning starters, drawing on his experience of playing with Martin Kaymer and Bernd Wiesberger – both Challenge Tour alumni – at last week’s 100th Open de France to continue his impressive rookie season.
“Last week was amazing,” said the 23 year old Frenchman. “I played with Bernd and Martin for the first two rounds, in front of big crowds so a lot of extra pressure, and that was a good test for me.
“It showed me that my game is ready to play under that pressure and on that kind of stage, and you learn about the attitude required – Martin was a few shots over par in the first round but he didn’t change anything, just continued to talk with me and play his own game, and he ended up fifth in the tournament.
“We talked about the Challenge Tour a bit because they both began here as well, and about the atmosphere here – they have good memories of playing here.
“It’s great to be able to speak to a player like Martin who has won two Majors and ten years ago he was in the same place as me, so that gives me more confidence about what comes next.”
One shot further back, in a tie for third place, are Espen Kofstad, Ruaidhri McGee, Pedro Oriol and Matthieu Pavon – Langasque’s roommate for the week.
Norway’s Kofstad made the first eagle four of the week at the 783-yard par six 15th hole as he bids for a top two finish that will earn him a place in the Olympics this summer ahead of the qualification deadline of Monday.

LEADERBOARD
par 72

65 R Fox (NZ)
66 R Langasque (Fra)
67 E Kofstad (Nor), M Pavon (Fra), R McGee (Ire), P Oriol (Spain).

SCOTS' SCORES
68 Scott Henry (T7)
69 David Law (T16)
72 D Stewart, R Kellett (T72)
77 C Sutherland, P Shields (T137)

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

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A wild and windy start to the AAM Scottish Open

 Well, blow me! Only two sub-70 first

 rounds  at Castle Stuart



 FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Castle Stuart Golf Links provided one of the ultimate tests of golf as just two sub-70 rounds were recorded on a wild and windy first day of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
The last time the event was played here in 2013, 67 players broke 70 in round one, but that feat was only achieved by Felipe Aguilar and Scott Hend today as very strong winds made conditions more difficult for the afternoon starters.
The duo both shot three under par rounds of 69 to share the first round lead but there was an intimidating and tight chasing pack behind them.
Two-time Open Championship winner Padraig Harrington, former US Open champion Graeme McDowell, former US PGA Championship winner YE Yang and three-time 2015 winner Andy Sullivan were all in the group just a shot off the lead.

Branden Grace, Luke Donald and Rafa Cabrera Bello were then among those two back with just 20 players under par.
Aguilar missed six cuts in a row after the turn of the year as he admitted he struggled to recover from taking part in an Iron Man triathlon but a second-placed finish at the Volvo China Open represented an upturn in form.
Hend, meanwhile, claimed a win at the True Thailand Classic Presented by Chang in March and has three other top tens this season.
The Australian started on the tenth and turned in 35 with three birdies and two bogeys but he holed his pitch to the par five second for an eagle and then parred his way home.

Hend discovered last week that he has a place in next week's Open Championship and while he admitted conditions were difficult, he was relishing the challenge provided by links golf.
"Obviously conditions were quite tough and it was a little bit scrappy with some putts not quite getting to the hole but overall I'm very happy," he said.
"It's awesome fun. It's awesome. Doesn't matter how hard it is. When you play links golf, it's just awesome. It's great.

I love it. I love it. It beats your head in, kicks you around, and sometimes you get it back. It's just great. Great fun. It's exciting - Scott Hend

Aguilar birdied the second, fourth and eighth before dropping a shot on the ninth and picked up further shots on the 12th and 16th. He left himself a long way from the hole on the last, though, and needed three putts to sign for a closing bogey.
"It was very difficult golf today," he said. "Really windy after the second hole.
"You have to be really patient out here, but this is just the first day. The course is playing really difficult. You have some downwind holes that you can actually reach the green in one but if you miss it on the wrong side, it's not very easy to make an up and down from there.
"We didn't make too many mistakes except for two bogeys on nine and 18 but you're going to make some bogeys out here. You have to make sure you make some birdies, also."

Yang and Tyrrell Hatton had both been at four under at one point but the South Korean finished bogey-bogey while Hatton dropped shots on the 14th and 17th to drop into the large group at two under.

Hatton's fellow Englishmen Richard Bland, Eddie Pepperell and Sullivan were also at that mark alongside Northern Irishman McDowell, Swede Alex Noren and Harrington

Grace, Cabrera-Bello, Donald, Bradley Dredge, Mikko Ilonen, Craig Lee, Alexander Levy, Richard Sterne, Matteo Manassero and Danny Lee were then at one under.


FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD
par 72


T1 Scott Hend 69 .





T1 Felipe Aguilar 69






T3 Richard Bland 70






T3 Y.E. Yang 70






T3 Tyrrell Hatton 70






T3 Andy Sullivan 70






T3 Alex Noren 70






T3 Eddie Pepperell 70






T3 Graeme McDowell 70






T3 Padraig Harrington 70






T11 Alexander Levy 71






T11 Bradley Dredge 71






T11 Richard Sterne 71






T11 Rafa Cabrera Bello 71






T11 Craig Lee 71






T11 Luke Donald 71






T11 Mikko Ilonen 71






T11 Matteo Manassero 71






T11 Danny Lee 71






T11 Branden Grace 71






T21 Edoardo Molinari 72






T21 Jeev Milkha Singh 72






T21 David Drysdale 72






T21 Renato Paratore 72






T21 Richie Ramsay 72






T21 Andrew Dodt 72






T21 David Howell 72






T21 Jorge Campillo 72






T21 Magnus A. Carlsson 72






T21 Nacho Elvira 72






T21 Jack Doherty 72






T21 Ricardo Gouveia 72






T21 Robert Rock 72






T21 Joakim Lagergren 72






T21 Nino Bertasio 72






T21 Roope Kakko 72






T21 Martin Kaymer 72






T21 Russell Knox 72






T21 Ashun Wu 72






T21 Niclas Fasth 72






T21 Justin Walters 72






T42 Joachim B. Hansen 73






T42 Matthew Fitzpatrick 73






T42 Marc Warren 73






T42 Chris Paisley 73






T42 Julien Quesne 73






T42 Romain Wattel 73






T42 Thomas Bjorn 73






T42 Simon Khan 73






T42 Thomas Pieters 73






T42 Pablo Larrazabal 73






T42 Raphael Jacquelin 73






T42 Gregory Havret 73






T42 Matthew Southgate 73






T42 Ryan Evans 73






T56 Lee Slattery 74






T56 Matt Ford 74






T56 Prom Meesawat 74






T56 Steve Stricker 74






T56 Nicolas Colsaerts 74






T56 Tommy Fleetwood 74






T56 Steve Webster 74






T56 Gregory Bourdy 74






T56 Soren Kjeldsen 74






T56 Soomin Lee 74






T56 Gareth Wright 74






T56 Daniel Im 74






T56 Callum Shinkwin 74






T56 Alejandro Canizares 74






T56 David Lipsky 74






T56 Mikko Korhonen 74






T56 Haydn Porteous 74






T56 Mike Lorenzo-Vera 74






T56 Michael Hoey 74






T56 Jamie McLeary 74






T76 Ben Evans 75






T76 Sebastien Gros 75






T76 Oliver Wilson 75






T76 Stuart Manley 75






T76 Adrian Otaegui 75






T76 Johan Carlsson 75






T76 Anthony Wall 75






T76 Benjamin Hebert 75






T76 Oliver Fisher 75






T76 Maximilian Kieffer 75






T76 Graeme Storm 75






T76 Chris Hanson 75






T76 Patrick Reed 75






T89 Richard McEvoy 76






T89 Kiradech Aphibarnrat 76






T89 Ross Fisher 76






T89 Lasse Jensen 76






T89 Peter Whiteford 76






T89 Thomas Linard 76






T89 Lucas Bjerregaard 76






T89 Morten Orum Madsen 76






T89 Scott Jamieson 76






T89 James Morrison 76






T89 Joost Luiten 76






T89 Phil Mickelson 76






T89 Henrik Stenson 76






T89 Andrew Johnston 76






T103  Hao Tong Li 77






T103 Bjorn Akesson 77






T103 Jimmy Gunn 77






T103 Gary Boyd 77






T103 David Horsey 77






T103 Johan Edfors 77






T103 Fabrizio Zanotti 77






T103 Thongchai Jaidee 77






T103 Shane Lowry 77






T103 Paul McGinley 77






T113 S.S.P. Chawrasia 78






T113 Jeung-hun Wang 78






T113 John Parry 78






T113 Paul Dunne 78






T113 Jens Fahrbring 78






T113 Nathan Holman 78






T113 Rhys Davies 78






T113 Shiv Kapur 78






T113 Miguel Angel Jimenez 78






T113 Thorbjorn Olesen 78






T113 Colin Montgomerie 78






T113 Richard Green 78






T113 Daniel Brooks 78






T113 Sandy Lyle 78






T113 Albert Venter 78






T128 George Coetzee 79






T128 David Dixon 79






T128 Peter Hanson 79






T128 Kris Nicol 79






T128 Robert Dinwiddie 79






T128 Ross McGowan 79






T128 Clement Berardo 79






T135 Matthew Baldwin 80






T135 J.B. Holmes 80






T135 Darren Fichardt 80






T135 Jason Scrivener 80






T135 Andrew McArthur 80






T135 Jamie Donaldson 80






T135 Simon Dyson 80






T135 Pelle Edberg 80






T135 Borja Virto 80






T135 Marcel Siem 80






T135 Trevor Fisher Jr. 80






T146 Gary Stal 81






T146 Paul Lawrie 81






T146 Eduardo De La Riva 81






T146 Jeff Winther 81






T150 David Lingmerth 82






T150 Jamie Lovemark 82






T152 Alastair Forsyth 83






T152 Brett Rumford 83






154 Robert Karlsson 84






155 Jin Jeong 88








































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SCOTS BOYS LOSE IN EUROPEAN 

QUARTER-FINALS

Scotland were beaten 4.5-2.5 by Denmark in the quarter-finals of the European boys's team championship at Diamond Country Club, Austria.
The Danes took a 2-0 lead from the foursomes and shared the singles 2.5 each.
Details:
SCOTLAND 2.5, DENMARK 4.5
Foursomes (0-2)
J Stewart and R Franssen lost to R Neergaard-Peterson and S Broholt-Lind 2 and 1
E McIntosh and M Watt lost to R Hojgaard and V Bjorlow 4 and 3
Singles (2.5-2.5)
S Locke halved with Hojgaard
McIntosh lost to Neergaard-Peterson 4 and 2.
Stewart bt G Frimoodt 3 and 2.
Watt lost to Bjorlow 2 and 1.
Franssen bt Broholt-Lind 1 hole.

Other results:
Germany 4, Sweden 3.
France 5, Czech Rep 2
Italy 4.5, Finland 2.5.

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