Sport

Dodd and Lara to the fore in Sicily

Golf: Welshman Stephen Dodd shared the first-round lead with Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara after carding six-under at the inaugural…

Stephen Dodd of Wales plays his approach shot on the 18th hole during the first round of the Sicilian Open at the Donnafugata golf and spa resort in Ragusa, Italy. Photograph: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
Stephen Dodd of Wales plays his approach shot on the 18th hole during the first round of the Sicilian Open at the Donnafugata golf and spa resort in Ragusa, Italy. Photograph: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
Thu Mar 17 2011 - 00:00

Golf:Welshman Stephen Dodd shared the first-round lead with Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara after carding six-under at the inaugural Sicilian Open today.

It was the European Tour’s first visit to Sicily and it was Dodd and Lara who acclimatised quickest at the Donnafugata Golf Resort.

Cardiff-born Dodd was happy with his overall game during the round. “I did a lot of good things out there today,” he said. “I kept in play most of the time, hit some good iron shots and I putted well which is always a key for any good round.”

Dodd’s round included six birdies and an impressive eagle at the par-five 16th, but two bogeys restricted his final score as he aims for his first win on the European Tour since winning the 2006 European Open, when Lara finished joint second.

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Lara’s round started rather unimpressively as he hit a double bogey on the fourth, but nine birdies over the course put him level with Dodd and the 33-year-old admitted to finding himself in a difficult position leading to the aforementioned double bogey.

“It was a strange one, I basically got a flier from the rough and the ball just went so far - straight behind a tree and I couldn’t do anything from there,” he said.

The Spaniard has two previous European Tour wins to his name, but his last came much more recently than Dodd as he won last year’s Austrian Open.

England’s Chris Wood and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin find themselves a shot back in third.

Wood’s compatriots Steve Webster and Anthony Wall are amongst four players tied for fourth with Europe’s successful Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie tied for 17th after a first-round score of 69, leaving him two-under.

Before his round the Scot had praised the course and its inclusion on the tour.

“The course is very good - a very good layout and we have a discovered a great new destination for The European Tour here in Sicily,” he said.

Damien McGrane was best of the Irish players after carding a one under par 71, one better than Gareth Maybin and two ahead of the returning Shane Lowry and peter Lawrie.

Collated first round scores in the European Tour Sicilian Open, Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa, Sicily, Italy
(Gbr and Irl unless stated, Irish in boldpar 71):

65Stephen Dodd, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)

66Anthony Wall, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)

67Steve Webster, Chris Wood, Daniel Gaunt (Aus), Matthew Zions (Aus)

68Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Joost Luiten (Ned), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Richard Green (Aus), John Bickerton, Sebi Garcia (Spa)

69Marco Crespi (Ita), Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Soren Hansen (Den), Colin Montgomerie, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Oscar Floren (Swe), Graeme Storm, Jamie Elson, Gianluca Baruffaldi (Ita), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)

70 Damien McGrane, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Robert Dinwiddie, David Lynn, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg), George Coetzee (Rsa), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Jason Knutzon (USA), Simon Khan, Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Andrew Marshall, Richard Finch, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Borja Etchart (Spa)

71Robert Coles, Shaun Norris (Rsa), Simon Dyson, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Scott Jamieson, Robert Rock, Thomas Norret (Den), Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Christian Nilsson (Swe), Gareth Maybin, Phillip Price, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Stuart Manley, Steven Tiley, Sam Hutsby, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Mark F Haastrup (Den), Stephen Gallacher, Pedro Oriol (Spa), Andrea Perrino (Ita)

72Steve Lewton, Liam Bond, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Peter Lawrie, Simon Wakefield, Gary Boyd, Lee Slattery, Marc Warren, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Shane Lowry, Matt Haines, Alastair Forsyth, Richard Bland, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Paul Broadhurst, Paul Lawrie, Keith Horne (Rsa), Mark Foster, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita)

73Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Gary Orr, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Kenneth Ferrie, Oliver Fisher, Florian Fritsch (Ger), Costantino Rocca (Ita), Federico Colombo (Ita), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Markus Brier (Aut), Santiago Luna (Spa), Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe), Roope Kakko (Fin), Mark Tullo (Chi), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Matthew Nixon, Nick Dougherty, Julio Zapata (Arg), Lloyd Saltman, Jamie Donaldson, Tano Goya (Arg), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Andreas Hart (Den)

74George Murray, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Adam Gee, Peter Whiteford, Richard McEvoy, Danny Willett, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Seve Benson, Johan Edfors (Swe), Marco Ruiz (Par), David Dixon, Nino Bertasio (Ita)

75Andrea Maestroni (Ita), Paul Waring, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Steven O'Hara, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Alexander Noren (Swe), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Manuel Quiros (Spa)

76Romain Wattel (Fra), Niccolo Quintarelli (Ita), Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita), Tim Sluiter (Ned), Gregory Havret (Fra)

77Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Ariel Canete (Arg), Thomas Levet (Fra)

78Andrea Pavan (Ita), Alexandre Kaleka (Fra)

79Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)

80Anthony Kang (USA)