With his 55th birthday fast approaching John Chillas could be forgiven for displaying a more sangfroid approach to his golfing life, but the Scot remains as tough as ever on himself when it comes to his on-course performance. Patently not happy with his game over recent weeks, he has spent long hours on the range and this work ethic brought its reward with a first round 66 that sent Chillas to the top of the leaderboard at the Bendinat London Seniors Masters.
Last year, Chillas finished in a share of sixth place over the Heritage Course at The London Golf Club and he set about improving on that result with a fine six under par score to lead by one stroke from big-hitting Jamaican Delroy Cambridge and two from Guillermo Encina of Chile and England’s Kevin Spurgeon.
Giuseppe Cali of Italy, English duo Martin Foster and Carl Mason, and France’s Jean Pierre Sallat share fifth place after rounds of 69, while defending champion Sam Torrance heads the group a shot further back on two under par.
Chillas, who is chasing his third title on the European Seniors Tour, said: “I have been hard on myself recently, so today was really pleasing. My game has been up and down, but after a lot of hard work on the range it seems to be coming back to some sense of normality again. I have had to change one or two things in my swing which I had over-done, so I am trying to work back to the middle.
“I played really well over the back nine and the birdie at the last capped a good day’s work on a good golf course.”
The only blemish came at the ninth where he dumped his tee shot into a bunker and made bogey, but he responded by covering the remaining nine holes in five under par. It was a fine passage of play, highlighted by an excellent par save at the par four 16th after finding a difficult bunker lie with his drive, and a magnificent four iron approach to 12 feet at the last, which set up his seventh birdie of the day.
In fact, the 18th was to play a large part in the make-up of the day one leaderboard. While Chillas birdied – only one of four players to do so - the majority of his closest rivals slipped up.
Encina and Spurgeon had both been playing magnificently before bogeying the last, the Chilean missing a three-foot par putt and Spurgeon taking three strokes with the flat stick from 40 foot.
“That was a little bit sour,” commented Spurgeon, who had left it to the last minute before deciding to play with an injured elbow.
Strangely, though, he felt the injury had helped. “Because I was worried about my arm I think I swung it nice and easy, and had a good result. It could have been very low. I only missed one green, at 16, but up and downed it for a par and my only other mistake came at the last, which was my only bogey.”
Torrance, the defending champion, was another to register a bogey five at the 18th hole, after trying to cut the corner from the tee and only finding the lake. The mistake dropped the former Ryder Cup Captain back into a share of ninth spot on two under par 70 alongside fellow Scot Martin Gray and three Englishmen, Tony Allen, Tony Charnley and Nick Job.
In winning last year’s tournament Torrance had stunned the crowds by breaking the record for the Jack Nicklaus-designed Heritage Course with an opening round of eight under par 64.
A repeat never looked on the cards as a cold putter left the Scotsman unable to capitalise on some fine approach play. His only successes on the greens came at the 16th, where he holed from 12ft for birdie, and at the last, where he sunk a similar putt to prevent a double-bogey six.
