Golf - European Tour:Peter Lawrie will need to shrug off any lingering concerns over a new driver tomorrow if he is to maintain a fine start to the Hassan Trophy in Morocco. The Dubliner lies just one shot off Nick Dougherty's lead after opening with a six under par 66 despite using his driver sparingly.
But, after starting his challenge on the gentler Blue Course at Royal Dar Es Salam, Lawrie faces a tougher and longer challenge in his second round. The 104-strong field switch courses tomorrow as the pro-am format continues before the top 65 professionals go through to the closing 36 holes on the Red.
With the Red measuring over 550 yards more than it’s neighbour, Lawrie will not be afforded the same opportunities to leave his new club in the bag. The 35-year-old broke his regular driver during practice yesterday and admitted he is still getting to grips with the replacement.
“The head of the driver came loose during practice. I have a spare, but I’m just not not 100 per cent confident with it,” said the former Rookie of the Year, whose only European Tour win came in the 2008 Spanish Open. “The three-wood’s going well, but the Red is long and the driver will have to come out somewhere.”
Lawrie is partnering his father-in-law in the pro-am format and conceded his presence led to a few more butterflies than normal.
“That’s the most nervous I’ve been,” he added. “I had to up my game to make sure I did okay and we did okay.”
Lawrie was only two under with eight to play, but eagled the long second and birdied three of his last four holes.
Darren Clarke remains in the hunt after signing for a three-under 69 on the Blue and Gareth Maybin was also under par. But Paul McGinley, playing his first tournament since a sixth knee operation in November, managed only a three over 76 while Shane Lowry (one over), Damien McGrane (two over) and Michael Hoey (seven over) have their work cut out to qualify for the weekend.
Dougherty did his battered confidence the world of good with an opening seven under to lead by one from Lawrie, Scot Stephen Gallacher, Italian Francesco Molinari, India’s SSP Chowrasia and South Americans Ricardo Gonzalez and Fabrizio Zanotti.
What Dougherty took most satisfaction from was the fact that his round came on the Red. Of the six players just behind him all but Chowrasia were on the much shorter Blue.
From a high of 46th in the world just over two years ago, the three-time European Tour winner has dropped to 120th on the rankings and missed out on the first two world championships this season.
“I’ve been struggling so much I’m just trying to build some confidence and hit as many good shots as I can,” he said. “Thomas Bjorn gave me quite a bit of help yesterday on the range, which meant the world to me obviously, but it’s a work in progress.
“Anything under par I would have been happy with, so I was delighted with that. I think seven under is a really, really good score round there.”
Collated scores
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in bold)
At Blue Course(Par: 72)
66Francesco Molinari (Ita), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Stephen Gallacher, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Peter Lawrie
67Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), David Horsey, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Sam Little
68Niclas Fasth (Swe), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra)
69Richard Bland, Anthony Wall, David Lynn, Pablo Martin (Spa), Darren Clarke,Mark Brown (Nzl), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
70Anthony Kang (USA), Azuma Yano (Jpn), David Howell, Gregory Havret (Fra)
71Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Andrew Butterfield, Gary Boyd, Richard Finch, Richard McEvoy, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Younes El Hassani (Mor)
72Ariel Canete (Arg), Gregory Bourdy (Fra)
73Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Andrew Tampion (Aus), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Faycal Serghini (Mor), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Graeme Storm, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), David Dixon, Markus Brier (Aut), Jamie Donaldson
74Sam Hutsby, Gary Lockerbie, Christian Cevaer (Fra), Daniel Brooks
75Chris Gane
76Paul Waring
79Macon Moye (USA)
At Red Course(Par: 73)
66Nick Dougherty
67Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind)
68Rhys Davies
69Phillip Price, Julien Clement (Swi), Thomas Levet (Fra)
70Stephen Dodd, Joost Luiten (Ned), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
71Jhared Hack (USA), David Drysdale, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Robert Rock, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
72Steve Webster, Peter Whiteford, Gareth Maybin,Robert Coles, Thomas Bjorn (Den), Julien Quesne (Fra), Simon Khan
73Peter Baker, Danny Willett, Seve Benson
74John Parry, Gary Orr, Marcel Siem (Ger), Paul Broadhurst, Marco Ruiz (Par), Shane Lowry,Alastair Forsyth, Tano Goya (Arg), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Barry Lane
75Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Damien McGrane,Richie Ramsay, Marc Warren, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Kenneth Ferrie, Peter Hedblom (Swe)
76Reda Rhazali (Mal), Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Paul McGinley,Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)
77Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Alexander Noren (Swe), Santiago Luna (Spa), Mark Foster
80 Michael Hoey