Law shakes off illness to make bright start in Spain

David Law was delighted to show no signs of rust as he overcame recent illness and a month off to fire a bogey-free 65 on day one of the 2022 ISPS Handa Championship in Spain.

The Scot has made a promising start to the DP World Tour season, making his first six cuts with a top ten at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital.

After falling a single stroke short of making the weekend at the Steyn City Championship, he headed home for a break but caught Covid-19 and admits it has hindered his practice since.

But he showed no ill effects at The Lakes Course at Infinitum as, after a delay of two hours and 15 minutes in the morning due to a flooded course, he got to five under thanks to his second-lowest round of the season so far.

“I'm really happy," he said. "I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this week after having four weeks off.

"I had Covid the first week I was at home and I’m still not feeling particularly great but I’m delighted with that start.

“The game was still in the same place but since I was ill I’ve not really managed to practise as much as I would like or play as well as I would have liked.

“I had no expectations coming into the week, so to start off like that wasn’t something I expected but I managed myself pretty well out there."

Law is no stranger to this week's layout, having faced it at the Qualifying School in the past, and was full of praise for the groundstaff who made it playable after very heavy rain.

“The course is set up phenomenally well," he said. "It was really disappointing to get the rain as the greens were firm and the rough is thick - they’ve done a great job this week - and hopefully the rain stays off and it firms up more.

“The course was playing completely different to what we had (in practice) and we had a lot of hanging about this morning not knowing when it would start and I didn’t think we would be starting as early as we did.

“The course has obviously drained really well to get it set up in time for us to go out. Luckily, I’ve played it a lot in the past at stage two in Q School and seeing how it was set up for this week was a nice surprise.”