Jonathan Yates and David Carey signed for three-under par rounds of 69 to hit the ground running on day one of the Alps Tour’s Red Sea Little Venice Open in Egypt.
Naas professional Yates fired six birdies in his opening effort, including four on the spin from the fifth hole to sit in a tie for 15th overnight alongside Carey. The Darwin Escapes swinger enjoyed five birdies of his own with the pair left trailing Luca Cianchetti by seven strokes heading into day two after the Italian opened up a three stroke lead.
Simon Bryan completed the day one scoring from an Irish perspective with two birdies in a one-over 73 but it was all about Cianchetti who raced to the lead with eight birdies and an eagle in a 10-under 62.
“I made just one mistake today”, said Cianchetti of his bogey-free round, “but it was on the good side, so I made a birdie anyway. I managed to keep calm and focussed the whole round, not getting caught up in the heat or trying to overdo it, I played my game and that led to a minus 10.”
“I’m happy about how I’ve putted today, 28 putts in all, and from the tee I hit 10 fairways, which is good,” the 25-year-old from Modena added, winner of the 2019 Katameya Dunes Open.
“This season has started better for me than the last one when I did not play well and finished 46th in the Order of Merit, just inside the cut line to retain my card for 2021. I had a top-ten at the Abruzzo Open last month, and a couple of other good tournaments. I arrived here in Egypt trusting my game, but my putting was disappointing last week, and I missed the cut.
“Today I found back the right feeling with the putter and it certainly was the best part of my game, together with the long game as I was always pretty close to the pin – the longest putt I’ve made was from 7 metres. Of course, I did not expect to shoot 10 under, but I knew I was playing well and was just waiting for a good score, which obviously arrived today!”
- Full scoring HERE
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