Cannes Open
Royal Mougins
Cannes, France
16th - 19th April 1998

Par 71 Prize Money £300,000

First Round Report

First Round Scores

Ace gives David Lynn joint lead

Cannes, 16th April 1998 - David Lynn, a 24-year-old from Trentham, holed-in-one for the first time in his professional career, shot 67 for his best round of the year and was joint leader after the first round of the Cannes Open.

Delighted Lynn, who has missed the cut four times in his six previous tournaments, said the recent success of Lee Westwood, once an amateur playing partner, had helped motivate his golf.

Lynn, who shared the lead at four under par with Frenchman Jeff Remesy, Australian Robert Allenby and Indian Jeev Singh, said: "Lee's success is good to see. It makes you realise what can be done.

"I used to play youth golf in the same year as Lee and beat him one year in the English Amateur Championship quarter-finals. I remember every detail of our match. I was about six under and only beat him on the last green."

Today, Lynn, who finished seventh on the Challenge Tour last year, started badly with a bogey six at the third hole but birdied the fourth then holed in one at the 155-yard fifth.

The hole was officially 212 yards on the card but Lynn joked: "I holed in one with a seven iron - you can say it was 212 yards if you like. That sounds a lot better but today they used the forward tee.

"I was really pleased to get my first ever hole in one because my younger brother Simon, also a professional, has had five already."

Lynn could have had two aces today as his ball finished six inches from the hole at the short eighth for another birdie, and a third birdie at the 12th earned him his 67.

Allenby shot 67 despite only just coming back from a five-week break, of which he spent two weeks going round Australia as a tourist, while Remesy used local knowledge to help his score.

"I know the course well because I live just up the road and my club is Saint Donat, also in Cannes," he said.

Singh, like Allenby, has been having a break from golf and made his 67 with three birdies in his last four holes.

Spaniard Miguel Angel Martin shot a two-under-par 69 and followed Lynn's example by holing in one at the fifth, also with a seven iron.

Andrew Coltart, third in the Order of Merit, and Peter Mitchell, who won the Portuguese Open, the last European Tour event to be staged three weeks ago, both did well after poor starts.

Coltart hit his ball into the water to double-bogey the short second and dropped further shots by three-putting both the fifth and ninth. He turned in three-over-par 38 but two birdies and seven pars on the back nine gave him a respectable 72.

Mitchell was three over par after the first five holes but then hardly made an error to cover the last 13 holes in three under to finish with a level-par 71.

PA Sport