Perrier sparkled in Poitiers

Damien Perrier of France Credit: Tristan Jones

France’s Damien Perrier took the lead after opening round of Open International du Haut-Poitou with 69, -4. Fellow countryman Alex Kaleka and Spain’s Daniel Osorio are one shot back.

Poitiers is west of France and fall has arrived early this year, with rain, wind and low temperatures. Heavy rain flooded the course of Saint Cyr on Monday and Wednesday. The weather conditions during this first round was tough. Fair for one hour, then windy in the morning and a few showers of heavy rain all afternoon. Play had to be suspended for 45 minutes at 13h40 and 4 groups could not complete their round.

During morning session, Spain’s Daniel Osorio signed for best provisional score 70. He equalized his best score, -3, in fourth appearance in Saint-Cyr.

“It was a tough day because it was very windy. On my front nine, I played really bad, poor iron game, but it was weird because I chipped in on the second for birdie and I holed a bunker shot for birdie as well for birdie. Eventually, on the back nine, I started to play better. I made two good birdies so I recorded 70, -3.
The golf course is very demanding. It looks easy but you have to hit straight from the tee otherwise you have no shot to the green. And with this new tee on the 17^th, which used to be an easy birdie hole, it is now a tough challenging par 5.”

France’s Alex Kaleka joined Osorio at the very end of the day and his playing partner, Damien Perrier signed for the best score, 69, -4.

“You know, last week when I missed the cut it was the fist time since march 2014!!! I am very consistent, my statistics before last week were excellent and I was second at the ranking without a win.

I fell confident and I started to hole some good putts for birdies, on second I holed 6 meters, about 5 meters on the third. I never had to save a par. It was a good day. I had 32 putts and the score is there.”

Alps Tour leader Josh Loughrey scored 74, +1 and projected cut is +2.