Australian Brad Kennedy made it a Sanctuary Cove double when he emulated the feat of his friend and neighbour Adam Scott by opening up a four stroke lead at the conclusion of the first round of the Madeira Island Open.
Both players hail from Hope Island on Queensland’s Gold Coast and hours after Scott took the lead in the Players Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass, Kennedy posted a stunning ten under par 62 at Santo da Serra, just one stroke outside the course record.
The 29 year old, who finished runner-up in the Carlsberg Malaysian Open last month, was seven under par through 11 holes last night when darkness brought a halt to proceedings after the first day’s play was disrupted by rain and low cloud. Returning to the course along with 60 other players at 8am this morning, Kennedy continued where he left off, birdieing the 12th, his first hole of the day and then picking up two more birdies in his last three holes.
"Played great yesterday and guess I was lucky with the conditions. The idea this morning was not to get too far ahead of myself but we certainly got the luck of draw."
“Those sort of days are few and far between so I have to go out there and put this first round out of my mind and start afresh,” said Kennedy as he prepared for a quick turnaround to start his second round. “I need to go out and continue to do what I have been doing without putting too much emphasis on the first round which is not easy to do.
“The conditions look like they will be good again this morning. The draw seems to be in my favour today. I have had plenty of bad ones so you have to make the most of the good ones. Just got off to a good start and tried to keep it flowing. Wasn’t worried about things were going, just seeing the next shot and trying to get it in the best position. Obviously to shoot that score you have to hole a few putts as well.”
Kennedy lies four shots clear of England’s Jamie Spence who, despite bogeying his first hole of the morning, the treacherous par three fourth hole, birded three of his last four holes to complete a six under par 66.
Spence, twice a winner on The European Tour, was in danger of losing his European Tour card at the end of last season for the first time since graduating from the Tour School in 1989 but ensured he would be back again with a third place finish in Majorca, the penultimate event of the 2003 season.
“This course is more my cup of tea,” said Spence, who has missed the cut in his last three events. “I’m out there to try and win. If you come out here trying to make cuts you are going to miss them. I’ve been round the cut mark for the last year and a half. Every week you have to par the last two to make the cut or birdie and that is horrible. I’ve tried to get away from it and achieved that today today.”
Magnus Persson Atlevi of Sweden land England's Paul Streeter lie a further shot back on five under par while among the players on four under is Italy’s Massimo Florioli, whose 68 included a hole-in-one, his first as a professional, on the eighth hole when he holed his eight iron from 161 metres.
