Scotland’s Scott Henry says drinking a lot of coffee and eating plenty of slices of Madeira cake helped him shoot a five under par 67 and be a two stroke clubhouse lead in the first round of the fog-affected Madeira Islands Open.
Fog had forced Thursday’s first day to be abandoned and there was also a near four-hour delay mid-morning today (FRD) as fog again enveloped the 600 metre high Club de Golf Santo da Serra course.
Scotland’s Scott Hendry makes mockery of his lowly World Ranking with a 68 on first day of BMW PGA. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
The delays has forced Tour officials to reduce the joint European and secondary Challenge Tour event to 54 holes.
Henry, 27 had eight birdies in his round including three in succession as the Glasgow golfer seeks to capture a maiden Tour title.
“It was certainly tough yesterday (THURS) as I was in the club for ten hours, from 7:00am so it was long day drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of Madeira cake,” he said smiling.
“It was eating the Madeira cake that kept me going today.
“I got off to a fast start which was nice because recently, in the few tournaments I’ve played, I haven’t done that so it was nice to start well.
“It was a tough day and I would have taken five under before I went out.”
Finland’s Tapio Pulkannen was celebrating after recoding a hole-in-one at the par three, 17th and just minutes after taking a double bogey at 16 on route to a round of an eight over par 80.
However only 77 players or half the 144-player field managed to complete their first round.
