DANIEL BROOKS LEADS RAIN-HIT NELSON MANDELA CHAMPIONSHIP

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
A flawless eight-under-par 62 saw Daniel Brooks claim the lead after a delayed first day of The Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa, in South Africa.
The Englishman, who retained his European Tour card at Qualifying School last month after a disappointing rookie campaign in 2013, had four birdies in five holes around the turn to surge to the top of the leaderboard.
Play had begun seven hours later than planned after heavy rain in Durban left the Mount Edgecombe course saturated.
Brooks had a host of French players in pursuit, with Francois Calmels second on seven under and Romain Wattel and Edouard Dubois tied for third a shot further back.
“I’m over the moon,” said the 26-year-old. “I played really nicely, putted really well and I managed to finish. It was quite tough, but we were lucky that we could place in the fairways, which gave us a bit of relief.
“It was quite difficult to get going. You’re siting about or waiting about all day then you don’t really get up for it. Once you get out there and play you quite enjoy it.
“I pretty much holed everything I looked at, which was quite nice. I haven’t putted that great over the last couple of weeks, so to hole a few was pretty nice.
“Hopefully I can finish it off and have a few more good rounds and see what happens at the end of it.”
A 15ft putt at the 18th and a tee shot to within five feet at the short third were among the highlights for Challenge Tour graduate Calmels, who won an event in Mauritius last week.
“It was a great week for me,” said Calmels.
“I made a great last round 65 to win by one over Hennie [Otto], and that give me quite a bit of self-confidence.
“I know I’m playing well, and the great round today was just perfect.”
More than half the field were unable to complete their opening round, with play set to resume at 6am (local time) on Thursday in a bid to make up for lost time.

LEADING COMPLETED ROUNDS
Par 70
62 Daniel Brooks (England)
63 Francois Calmels (France)
64 Edouard Dubois (France), Romain Wattel (France).
65 Joel Sjoholm (Sweden), Ryan Cairns (Zimbabwe)

SCOTS' SCORES
68 Alastair Forsyth

The Scots who have yet to complete their first rounds 
are:
Duncan Stewart, Scott Henry, Jack Doherty, Andrew McArthur, David Drysdale, Doug McGuigan, Scott Jamieson, Jamie McLeary and Peter Whiteford

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