England’s Benn Barham equalled the lowest round of his ten year professional career with an eight under par 63 to establish a two stroke lead over Frenchman David Dupart after the first round of the Open Mahou de Madrid on the European Challenge Tour at La Herreria Club de Golf.
Barham, who also shot 63 in winning the NCC Open on the Challenge Tour in 2001, birdied six of the last six holes in the Spanish capital to help justify his switch to new coach Matt Belsham at the end of March.
The 29 year old from Ashford in Kent said: “I hit every fairway, which is the way to play this course. The back nine is easier and I took my chances to shoot six under. I’ve been working with Matt since the end of March, looking at various aspects of the swing and I am also with psychologist, Jeff Pettit. We work hard on taking one shot at a time and see what happens.”
Dupart started at the tenth with a bogey but then picked up seven shots to climb into second place on his own on 65. The Frenchman had to overcome the handicap of losing the head to his driver but admitted: “At least it’s a golf course where you don’t need to use the driver a lot!”
Five players were tied on 66, five under par: Sweden's Johan Edfors, Denmark’s Jeppe Huldahl, Arnaud Langenaeken of Belgium, Ian Steel of Malaysia and Spain’s Tomas Jesus Muñoz.
