Canter leaps from flop to top
20/04/2016
After propping up the field in the Spanish Open at Valderrama Open last week, Laurie Canter regained his best form to lead after the first round of the £20,000 PGA in England and Wales (South West) Cornish Festival.
The 26-year-old from Bath, who won his European Tour card in December, had never played at the seaside Carlyon Bay course at St Austell until he sparkled with a seven-under-par 65 to create a new course record.
He credited a ten-hour practice session with his father Richard at Cumberwell Park’s state-of-the-art short game practice area on Sunday for his early success in the 54-hole three-day event.
He said: “Valderrama was crazy as I have never experienced a course like that with the heavy rough on an already most difficult course. So to shoot 24 shots better than my second round there was heartening.
“Although I have been playing well for a while and made the cut in my first four tournaments on Tour this season I hadn’t been chipping and putting well so the Sunday session has paid early dividends.
“Doing well again in Cornwall this year would give me a boost before I go to the next Tour event in Morocco as retaining my card is goal number one this year.”
Canter, who finished third last year, started with a birdie at the course with spectacular views, eagled the fourth and a run of five successive birdies from the tenth took him to eight-under.
But two further bogeys on 15 and 17 followed by his eighth birdie at the uphill par-three last was the round of the day.
He also leads the team section with Andy Carter (Letchworth, off nine), Shane Rowe (Cumberwell Park, eight) and Johnny Grace (Bath, scratch), last year’s winners.
Before Canter’s appearance former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst (Northants County) carded seven birdies in six-under-par 66 after dropping a shot on the opening hole to briefly become the course record-holder.
But Broadhurst, above, a six times a European Tour winner who hopes to play on the Champions Tour in America next year, is determined not to relinquish the title he claimed when beating fellow Ryder Cup player Phillip Price to win last year
Only 17 of the 114 players bettered par on a glorious early summer day. Perhaps the best was posted by Michael Watson (Wessex Golf Centre), a member of Great Britain & Ireland's victorious 2015 PGA Cup team in California.
He produced four-under-par 65 at St Enodoc, always rated the toughest of the three courses. Birdies at the first, fourth, fifth and ninth helped him out in 32 and another birdie at the 16th completed a fine morning.
Former St Enodoc amateur star and life member Scott Godfrey (Ferndown), Danny Lee (Rushmore) and Andrew Jones (Forest of Arden) at two-under were the only others to break par there.
Surprisingly only five produced sub-par rounds at Carlyon Bay. The other three were Price, Chris Gane (Left handed Golf at Silvermere), at two-under, and Nick Horrocks (Staddon Heights, one-under.
Trevose is invariably the most friendly course and eight players broke par. The lightning fast greens proved troublesome but Leicester-born Matt Cort (Beedles Lake) was able to take his mind off his home-town team’s Premiership title battle, to post six-under 65.
The experienced 41-year-old former Challenge Tour player signed for the only faultless round of the day in the whole tournament. Impeccable iron play and masterly putting resulted in 12 pars and birdies at the fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, 13th and 17th.
Former PGA champion Scott Drummond from Plymouth, former Dorset amateur legend and fledgling senior professional Tony Lawrence (Sherborne) and rising Cornish star Rhys Enoch (Celtic Manor) posted three-under 68s.
The four players to post one-under rounds at Trevose were another former Ryder Cup man Steve Richardson (Hayling Island), one-time Tour player Liam Bond (St Pierre), Ross Langdon (Brickhampton Court) and occasional player James Taylor (Newquay).
The happiest amateur was former Cornwall county player Mark Blaber who aced the eighth hole at St Enodoc.
