Martin Simonsen and Jeremy Freiburghaus share a one-stroke lead at the end of a weather-affected opening day of the Kaskáda Golf Challenge.
A picturesque morning was followed by heavy afternoon thunderstorms, resulting in a delay of almost three hours, but Denmark’s Simonsen and Switzerland’s Freiburghaus emerged from the interruption in fine form to post seven under par rounds of 64 to share the advantage at Kaskáda Golf Resort.
The leading duo are closely followed by Swede Robin Petersson and Spaniard Borja Virto, who both took advantage of the benign morning conditions to post six under par rounds of 65, as well as Portugal’s Pedro Lencart who has one hole of his final round to finish as play was suspended due to darkness.
Co-leader Simonsen was left to rue a missed birdie putt on the last which would have handed him the outright lead, but is nonetheless happy with his opening effort.
“I feel tired, but happy,” he said. “Seven under is always nice but I wish I would’ve got to eight. I missed a short one on the last but that happens.
“I didn’t know what to expect this week because I’m quite tired, but getting an eagle to start with helps everything. It was a good drive, a little bit in the rough but hit it to 17 feet and I made it, so I’ll take it.
“I made a bad bogey on eight and I was a little bit frustrated with my game because I played quite well but I made two silly bogeys. I felt like I should’ve been better but then I made a good up and down on nine and made some really good birdies after that. It felt like playing back home at night, it was quite nice to be out here with no wind, so I was quite lucky.
“This week is all about relaxing as much as I can, because it’s my fifth week. I’m saving up the energy for the hill on number one, that’s a hike. When I get past that tomorrow I’ll be very happy.”
Freiburghaus experienced a slow start to his round before igniting into life on the 17th hole – his eighth – as a trio of birdies set him on the path to the top of the leaderboard.
“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “I started off a little lazy but then I really got it going.
“I was thinking a bit too much in the beginning but the birdie on 13 really got me going. I got lucky on 17; I chipped in from behind the green so I was a bit lucky on the front nine, but I’ll take that.
“I was hitting it well before the delay so I just tried to keep that feeling into the second part of the round.
“I’ll try and do the same as I did today. Try not to think about stuff, think about where I want to hit it and execute the shots.”
Six players share sixth place on five under par, including Ireland’s Paul Dunne and Sweden’s Jesper Svensson, who posted a round of 66 in the first group of the day.
The first round will resume at 7:30am local time on Friday June 17, with a one-hour delay added to all second round tee times.
