Havret on top in Scotland
by Dave Maher, 28 August 2008
Gregory Havret heads the field following the opening day's play at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
The Frenchman, after a five-under-par opening round of 68, leads by two shots from England's Paul Broadhurst and Robert Rock, another representative of France in Christian Cevaar and Scotland's Gary Orr.
Click here for the leaderboard from Gleneagles.
Seven players –Gregory Bourdy, Bradley Dredge, Soren Hansen, Jose-Filipe Lima, Benoit Teilleria, Anthony Wall and Marin Wiegele – sit a further shot off the lead, on two-under.
Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, following his win at the KLM Open last weekend, is well in contention on one-under. Clarke, however, would have been in a much stronger position had he not suffered three successive bogeys – on 15, 16 and 17.
Chasing Wall for the position of highest-placed Englishman are Ross Fisher, Lee James, Jonathan Lomas and Lee Westwood, who all sit on -1. Nick Dougherty, who is aiming to force his way into the European Ryder Cup team, is on even-par after the opening round.
Scottish favourite Colin Montgomerie had a topsy-turvy outing. Monty struck four birdies but also scored five bogeys to finish the round on one-over-par.
The well-represented Republic of Ireland’s best performers on day one were Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy, who lie on two-over.