Four-Way Tie At Cannes Open
The first-day leaderboard in the Cannes Open underlined yet again the multi-national nature of the modern PGA European Tour. The five men who appeared on it hail from four continents -- Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia -- and not one of them relished the conditions on a cold, windswept day on the French Riviera, an area much more used to blissfully warm weather.
The European standard-bearers in the £300,000 tournament were Jeff Remesy, of France, and David Lynn, of England, who shared the lead on 67, four under par, with Robert Allenby, of Australia, and India's Jeev Milkha Singh, a shot ahead of the South African, Wayne Westner and Peter Lonard, another Australian.
Lynn, 24, is in his first full season on the European Tour -- he won his place after finishing seventh on the European Challenge Tour last season. He has competed in seven European Tour events this season and has made only two cuts, with a best finish of joint 48th.
His play was hardly that of a man at odds with his game, even after a discouraging bogey six at the long third, where he missed an eight-foot putt for par. He recovered with a birdie on the next, also a par-five, a sand-wedge to three feet giving him the chance to single-putt to go back to level par.
The high spot of his round came without doubt on the short fifth, where he had the first hole in one of his life. Lynn hit a smooth seven-iron on the 155-yard hole and watched in delight as the ball pitched six feet short and rolled gently into the hole. Shortly afterwards, Miguel Angel Martin birdied the same hole, again with a seven-iron.
"I'm glad to get the hole in one out of the way," he said. "My younger brother, Simon, who's also a professional, has had five of them and is constantly reminding me of the fact. I'm sick of him coming home and boasting of another ace -- perhaps this will keep him quiet for a while."
Lynn was once a playing companion of Lee Westwood, the young Englishman who is making a name for himself on the world golf stage. They played together in the England Youths team when amateurs, and even beat Westwood in the quarter-finals of the English Amateur championship five years ago.
"I'm happy for Lee," Lynn said. "He was a very good player even when we were amateurs. You could see that he was heading for great things -- his success acts as an inspiration to people like me."
The rest of Lynn's round after his dramatics at the fifth was a comparatively low-profile affair. He birdied the eighth from zero range after a agnificent approach shot, and having reached the turn in 32 against a par of 35 made his final birdie of the day on the 12th, where he hit a good three-wood then pitched on to 12 feet and made the putt.
Singh, much more used to the warmth on his back, battled bravely in the chilly conditions, holding his game together well in a switchback front nine in which he birdied the first, third and fourth but slipped back by dropping shots at the sixth and eighth.
He regained his momentum with a pitch to 18 inches and a single putt for a birdie on the 15th, and completed a satisfactory day's work with an eagle three on par-five closing hole, where he hit a three-wood second shot in to 25 feet and holed a putt that broke twice before diving into the hole.
"I don't mind the cold," Singh said. "The main problem was the wind -- it was swirling about all the way round, and made several good shots look pretty poor." Singh used the Tour's three-week break to go home to India for a holiday having posted the best finish in his brief European career when he finished twelfth in the Portuguese Open in March.
Allenby, the slim Australian, is another returning to the competitive golf after a break. He last played in the Dubai Desert Classic at the end of February. He spent the first two weeks of his sabbatical exploring his own country and then practised solidly for three weeks.
He had six birdies and two bogeys and blamed some uncharacteristically untidy golf to rustiness. "In the circumstances I was pretty pleased to shoot four under, because this is one of the tightest courses we play all year," he said. "Five weeks is a long time to go without tournament golf -- it won't take too long to get the old brain working again."