The opening round of the HotelPlanner Tour Swiss Challenge saw six Irish representatives teeing off on Thursday at Golf Sempach in Lucerne.
Antrim’s Dermot McElroy carded the lowest Irish round of the day, as the 32-year-old posted a two-under-par 69 to sit T28 after 18-holes. McElroy was faultless on the front nine as he made four birdies, including a hat-trick of them through holes seven to nine to take the turn at four-under-par.
Another birdie came at the par-4 10th before McElroy began to struggle as he went on to make four bogeys between 11 and 16, undoing all the good work from earlier in the round but he did well to limit the damage with a much needed birdie at the par-5 17th to get him back to two-under.
Whitehead’s John-Ross Galbraith sits just one behind McElroy at one-under. It was a steady day for Galbraith as the 32-year-old made three birdies and two bogeys to post a 70, sitting T41.
Galway’s Ronan Mullarney joins Galbraith on one-under as the 30-year-old posted a near identical round. Mullarney was one-over-par with three holes to play until back-to-back birdies came at the 16th and 17th to get him to red figures.
Kilkenny’s Mark Power went four-under in the final three holes to also post a one-under-par round. A slow start for Power saw him sit three-over-par after 11 holes before an exceptional finish to his round, going birdie-eagle-birdie to post a 70.
33-year-old Cormac Sharvin posted a three-over-par 74 to see him with some work to do in Friday’s round if he is to make the weekend.
A horrible opening day for Waterford’s Gary Hurley saw him post an eight-over-par round, needing a couple of miracles if he is to see the weekend. Hurley has been gaining some momentum in the early season and he currently sits 22nd in the rankings, but he will be wanting to put this round behind him quickly.
At the top of the leaderboard, Denmark’s Christoffer Bring holds a one stroke lead over the field after 18-holes as the Dane carded a bogey free opening round 64.
Bring, who made four birdies on the front and three on the back, felt that going out early in the second grouping allowed him to capitalise on the scoring conditions.
“We didn’t really have any wind to start with,” he said. “We got a bit lucky with the draw as it looks like it is going to be windy and maybe some rain later.”
“It was pretty easy today, I didn’t miss that many greens and had a couple of good looks at birdie, so it was really nice,” he added.
The 27-year-old has missed the cut in all three of the HotelPlanner Tour events he has featured in this year but Bring has insisted that this quick start won’t alter his preparations.
“It doesn’t change my approach going into tomorrow. I’m just going to keep enjoying playing and see what happens,” said Bring.
Aussie Haydn Barron, Englishman George Bloor, Slovakian Tadeas Tetak and Sweden’s Edén Tobias sit just one shot off the pace at six-under-par, followed by another four-way tie for sixth at five-under-par.
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