Paul Dunne’s disappointing season looks set to continue at the Scandanavian Invitation on the European Tour after he slumped to an opening round of six over par which included an eagle, a double bogey and a quadruple bogey.
The Greystones man recorded a tied-23rd finish at the Czech Masters last week in what was his first made cut since May but he looks destined to miss out on the final two rounds in Gothenburg this week as he sits on six over par after Thursday’s first round.
Beginning on the 10th Dunne got off to a nice start with two birdies in his opening three holes before dropping a shot at the 14th. However, the worst was to come at the Par 3 15th where he wound up with a quadruple bogey seven. There was a brief fightback with a birdie at the 16th and an eagle three at the 17th but four bogeys and a double on his back nine saw him tumble back to six over, 14 shots behind leader Wade Ormsby who fired an opening 62.
Gavin Moynihan is the best of the Irish trio after the first round with a 69 leaving him at one under and in a tie for 35th while Michael Hoey sits at two over after a 72.
But it’s Ormsby who leads the way at eight under. The Australian, who started from the 10th, had the chance to post the second sub-60 round in European Tour history when he raced to the turn in 28 on the par-70 layout, aided by holing his four-iron approach to the 14th for an eagle two.
However, the 39-year-old could only pick up two birdies on the inward nine to finish eight under par, a shot ahead of home favourite Joakim Lagergren and France’s Alexander Levy.
“I made a pretty straightforward birdie on the 12th and then at the 14th I was in between a five and a four iron, picked the right one and boxed it, so then I just got a bit of momentum through the final holes,” Ormsby said.
“I felt like I had been hitting the ball quite well, I just wasn’t quite free enough in my putting, so I was working hard on that to get back to a point where I feel more comfortable and less into my technique.”
Levy had missed the cut in eight of his last 10 starts as he works on swing changes with coach Sean Foley, but feels he is on the right track after a 63 which featured eight birdies and a solitary bogey.
“When you look at the video of my swing it’s totally different so it’s nice,” Levy said. “I feel I have really good control on the flight and spin of the ball which was what I really wanted.”
World number 30 Matt Fitzpatrick, the highest-ranked player in the field, is two shots off the lead after a bogey-free 64.
Collated first round scores in the European Tour Scandinavian Invitation, Hills Golf & Sports Club, Gothenburg, Sweden (British unless stated, par 70):
62 Wade Ormsby (Aus)
63 Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Alexander Levy (Fra)
64 Matthew Fitzpatrick
65 Matthew Southgate, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa)
66 Sihwan Kim (Kor), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Gavin Green (Mal), John Catlin (USA), James Morrison
67 Kalle Samooja (Fin), Alexander Bjork (Swe), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Ashun Wu (Chn), Adrien Saddier (Fra), Hyo-won Park (Kor), David Nyfjall (a) (Swe), Sebastian Soderberg (Swe), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Austin Connelly (Can), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Min Woo Lee (Aus)
68 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Ricardo Gouveia (Por), Paul Waring, David Lingmerth (Swe), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor), Robert Rock, Victor Perez (Fra), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Bradley Dredge
69 Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Tom Lewis, Jason Scrivener (Aus), Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Spa), Max Schmitt (Ger), Per Langfors (Swe), Henrik Stenson (Swe), George Coetzee (Rsa), Lee Slattery, Gavin Moynihan (Irl), Sam Horsfield, Jamie Donaldson, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Borja Virto (Spa), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus)
70 Andrew Johnston, Joost Luiten (Ned), Aaron Rai, Kim Koivu (Fin), Johan Edfors (Swe), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Adam Bland (Aus), Marc Warren, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Matthew Nixon, Niklas Lemke (Swe), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Paul Peterson (USA), Brett Rumford (Aus), Liam Johnston, Stephen Gallacher, Tom Murray, Jens Dantorp (Swe)
71 Albin Bergstrom (a) (Swe), Anton Karlsson (Swe), Oliver Wilson, Jack Singh Brar, Stuart Manley, Oscar Lengden (Swe), Romain Langasque (Fra), Nick Cullen (Aus), Vincent Norman (a) (Swe), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Ryan Evans, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Max Orrin, Justin Walters (Rsa), Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn)
72 Steven Brown, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita), Scott Jamieson, Henric Sturehed (Swe), Renato Paratore (Ita), Laurie Canter, Minkyu Kim (Kor), Robert Macintyre, Louis De Jager (Rsa), Thomas Detry (Bel), Michael Hoey (NIrl), Hugo Leon (Chi), Richie Ramsay, Chris Wood, Alex Noren (Swe), Ashley Chesters, Deyen Lawson (Aus), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Sam Brazel (Aus)
73 David Law, Ben Evans, Lasse Jensen (Den), Christopher Sahlstrom (Swe), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Oliver Fisher, Alexander Wennstam (Swe), Jeff Winther (Den), Christofer Blomstrand (Swe), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), David Howell, Zheng kai Bai (Chn), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Joel Girrbach (Swi), Scott Gregory
74 Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Richard McEvoy, David Borda (Spa), Jonathan Thomson, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Julian Suri (USA), Andy Sullivan, Romain Wattel (Fra), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Jordan Smith, Sean Crocker (USA), Soomin Lee (Kor)
75 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), Philip Eriksson (Swe), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Luis Gagne (Crc), Chris Paisley, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Andres Romero (Arg)
76 Adri Arnaus (Spa), Simon Forsstrom (Swe), Paul Dunne (Irl), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Callum Shinkwin, Jin-ho Choi (Kor)
77 Joannes Axell (Swe)
78 Joakim Wikstrom (Swe)
79 Daniel Gavins
83 Stefan Idstam (Swe)
