Irish challengers with work to do at Royal Porthcawl

The Irish challengers at the Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl have some work to do to try and catch first round leader Bernhard Langer.

Langer leads by one after an opening 69 and said, “I’m pretty pleased that I’m on top of the leaderboard at the moment. Conditions were extremely tough, and I’m not feeling very good physically. So I’m just glad that I made it through the day and I’m in contention.”

“I do like the golf course; I think it’s very challenging. You can be aggressive at times and you’ve got to be cautious at other times. I think my game plan is pretty good; it’s just a matter of executing the shots and the putts.” Langer leads by one shot from Argentina’s Mauricio Molina and England’s Carl Mason, who holds the all-time win record on the European Senior Tour with 25 victories.

A group of Irish challengers are only six shots back as Philip Walton, Paul McGinley and Mark McNulty all returned 75’s, while Des Smyth carded a 76 and Brendan McGovern a 77.