Tough start for seniors

The English duo of Matt Briggs and Bob Cameron, Paraguay's Angel Franco and Australian David Merriman were the only players to break par on a fiendishly tough opening day of the De Vere Club PGA Seniors Championship.

The quartet all signed for rounds of 71 over the superb Hunting Course at Slaley Hall in Hexham where a stiff breeze and cold temperatures made low scoring decidedly difficult.

Franco and Cameron set the early pace in the morning, and they were later joined on one under par by Merriman and Briggs, who would have held the outright lead were it not for a double bogey on his last hole. But Briggs, who earned his place in the field after coming through a qualifying event on Monday, refused to let that disappointing finish mar what was an otherwise flawless exhibition of golf.

He said: "At least I kept the bogeys off my card - it's just a shame I couldn't also keep the double bogeys off. But the ninth is a very tough hole, so I can't be too disappointed. And I got lucky with a couple of putts earlier in the round, so it probably evened itself out in the end."

Amongst the ten strong group one shot back on level par are Scotland's Sandy Lyle, currently second on the Order of Merit, and England's Carl Mason, who recently broke Tommy Horton's record of Senior Tour victories.

Lyle notched two birdies and two bogeys on both nines, whilst Mason looked on course to continue his dominance until dropping three shots in his last five holes, with a bogey at the 14th and a double from the middle of the fairway at the 16th.