Joakimides and Marty lead the battle of Normandy

French duo leads after first round of the Open de Normandie. Both fellows Nicolas Joakimides and Fabien Marty (picture) are former Challenge tour players and they tamed the course of Saint-Saens with opening 64-7-under-par card. Norwegian Jason Kelly and England Ricki Neil-Jones are one shot behind signing for 65.
Nicolas Joakimides, 39 year old, is kind of a golf ‘yoda’. Joakimides had great seasons on Challenge in the late 90’s. He won the Challenge tour Grand Final in 1997 and played on main Tour the following year. He almost had the perfect day today and only dropped one shot on the 15th.
The second leader, France’s Fabien Marty had his one and only victory on Alps Tour in Austria in 2006. Marty played on Challenge Tour in 2010. He has been away for circuit the past two years and only enters event on home soil. ‘As I do not play very often, I really enjoyed to be here. Today, my putting was great. I managed to save really good putts when I was in danger and I holed seven birdies. Let’s see what is coming next.’
The day looked alike typical autumn day. The sky was partly cloudy, the wind went stronger in the afternoon drying the greens and the atmosphere was quite fresh. The projected cut is level par.

In Saint-Saens

By Agathe Séron