Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre carded a six-under-par 65 to lead the way on day one of the 2020 Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown. Shubhankar Sharma of India played a brilliant round of golf with four-under-64, lying just two shots off the pace.
Sharma carded five birdies and a lone bogey to score 64 and lying at T9 at the end of the first round, which got suspended overnight and players will complete round 1 at 08:30 AM tomorrow.
Last season’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year MacIntyre, finished in a share of the third over the same Aphrodite Hills Resort layout in the Cyprus Open last week and continued his good form with six birdies in a flawless round.
That put him a shot clear of Belgium’s Thomas Detry, Wales’ Jamie Donaldson, Swedish pair Rikard Karlberg and Joakim Lagergren, France’s Romain Langasque, Finland’s Sami Välimäki and China’s Ashun Wu.
With one group still to finish the last hole when play was suspended due to fading light, two under marked the crucial score of tied for 30th – the top 32 and ties after Friday’s second round will progress to Saturday with their score reset, before the field is cut to 16 and ties for Sunday’s final round.
“I’m delighted,” said MacIntyre. “Again, I played great golf. A few mishits off the tee, but it’s one of those golf courses where I can open my shoulders a little bit more and give it a little bit extra. I missed a few putts that were still shaving the edges of holes but overall it was a good round of golf.
“The course suits my eye. Visually there are certain shots that, if it was a different sort of wind, I wouldn’t like them, but with the normal wind direction it suits my eye. I’m rolling the putter great. The new irons are brilliant. I’m hitting numbers.
“I’m trying to lead every round of golf that I play – and I’m leading after today. Hopefully lead after tomorrow and once it’s back to level, again you want to win every day. That’s my approach this week. It’s going to be an interesting day tomorrow with the weather coming in. I’ll just take it a day at a time.”
MacIntyre got his round off to a strong start by firing his approach close at the second, then added further gains at the sixth, eighth and 13th before finishing with back-to-back gains.
Karlberg eagled the par five last from 20 feet and feels at home playing the same course two weeks running.
“When you do two weeks in a row it’s almost like your caddie doesn’t have to confirm the lines you are taking off the tee or whatever it is,” he said. “It makes it a little more of a home course feel when you are going in to the second week.
“You get into everything around here and I think it’s been a great two weeks for me. I got a lot of good practice in. When everything is so smooth as it is here – you’re just a five minute walk from the golf course, great buffet all the time – it’s just so simple.
“I’ve been working hard on my technique the last few weeks, so I’m happy with a great result today but I still think there are a few things to work on.”
Last week’s winner Callum Shinkwin was going well at six under but finished with three bogeys in his last four holes, with his approach to the last bouncing up twice off the rocks before finishing in the water.
European Tour Release, Nov 05, 2020
