Northern Ireland’s Cormac Sharvin leads the English Championship after the first round at Hanbury Manor having shot a superb 63 as one of the late starters. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

An opening round of 63 by Cormac Sharvin was enough to open up a one-shot cushion over a congested leaderboard in the inaugural English Championship.

The Northern Irishman dropped just two shots to reach eight-under par – on a day of perfect scoring conditions at Hanbury Manor Marriot Hotel and Country Club – to move one ahead of a group of six players.

The English trio of Jack Senior Laurie Canter and David Howell had all held the lead. Lancastrian Senior had gone out in 29, and got to eight-under before two late bogeys saw him drop back.

Canter and Howell – who holed his second shot on the 15th – also dropped shots on the 17^th to fall back into the pack.

They ended round one of the third event of the UK Swing alongside Belgian Thomas Detry, Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent, and Australians Min Woo Lee and Jason Scrivener.

Sharvin said: “It was a nice round – played really well, Didn’t do too much wrong. Put it on the fairway, hit a lot of good shots and holed a few putts as well and it all added up to 63.

“Pretty happy to start well. A long way to go. But it’s always nice to shoot a good score on the first day and not put yourself out of it.

“I feel like last week I didn’t play too badly.” Cormac added: “I just struggled on the greens.

“I did a lot of work with Dean Robertson my old college coach, who has been caddying for me on the UK Swing.

“Did a lot of work on my putting process and it seemed to work. Hopefully it keeps going in that direction and see where it takes us,” said Sharvin.

English pair in hunt at Hanbury

CANTER and Howell sit one shot ahead of a group of nine players, including Belgian Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts and rising Danish star Rasmus Højgaard.

The pair recorded rounds of 65 to sit at six-under after the European Tour returned to the Hertfordshire venue for the first time since 1999.

Canter, from Somerset, said: “I got off to a great start. I said to my caddie on the putting green I didn’t feel like I was getting to grips with the greens.

“Then on the first hole I holed a 60-footer right across it. Funny how that happened.

“Played really nicely. I’d have that swing back on 17, but I’m happy with today.

“I have tried to do things a bit differently because we have the opportunity to. I’ve always played with keeping the card hanging over my head.

“Someone I work with asked ‘how are you going to approach the game differently?’ It’s not rocket science.

“I’ve tried to do a couple of things. It’s early to say it’s working. I’ve only played nine rounds.

“It’s been more enjoyable – which is one thing I’ve taken out of it and I’m having fun out there. We’ll see how long that continues.”

David Howell’s last win came in 2013 in the Alfred Dunhill Links at St Andrews

Howell: I just needed a good start

TWO-time Ryder Cup winner Howell has struggled to replicate his big wins of 2006 after a long-term back condition hampered his career.

The Broome Manor GC member, from Swindon, has now been on tour for 25 years and has five wins including the HSBC Invitational in 2005, when he beat Tiger Woods in Shanghai.

Howell, whose last win came in the Alfred Dunhill Links seven years ago, said: “It’s been a long time since I’ve put a good first round on the board to be honest. It’s what I’ve been crying out for.

“I’ve played some reasonable golf in spurts since we’ve come back but haven’t got off to a great start.

“Today it happened so it was lovely. Nice to see my name somewhere near the top of the leaderboard, if not the top.

“There was a lovely family, the only gallery we would have, in their property behind the 15th green.

“Might be the only golf fans we play in front of for the entire UK Swing.

“They happened to be sat there on their own lawn when the ball went in. They were the give away that it was indeed an eagle.”

Howell was the clubhouse leader with the six others until Sharvin overtook them late in the afternoon.

Detry on a roll after English Open near miss

THOMAS Detry has been touted by many people as a winner in waiting on the European Tour and lost out to Florida-based Mancunian Sam Horsfield in last week’s English Open.

Detry, who made nine birdies in his 64, said: “It was really good. Built up a bit of momentum from last week I think.

“I got off to a really good start, with an eagle chance at the second, a birdie putt at the third.

Detry added: “I was just rolling – had four more birdies on the last four holes of the front nine.

“Then I kept it going. I made two little mistakes on 11 and 17 but I’m very pleased with the way I’m playing golf right now.

“You’ve just got to forget about it and this week is just another chance to put my name up there and have a chance on Sunday.

“That’s what I think I’ve done today and hopefully I can keep going the next few days. Last week was not easy.

“I played some really good golf but Sam Horsfield hit an amazing shot on 17 to birdie that hole and beat me by one, so we just move on.”

Min Woo Lee has been tipped for thE top. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

Min Woo Lee hopes he turned corner at Ware

ANOTHER young player touted for great things is former US Junior Amateur Champion Min Woo Lee.

He said: “I just striped it awesome. I hit it really good with my irons and my driver and rolled a few in.

“I think my longest putt was 25 feet, so I was pretty happy with that. It’s scoreable but you’ve also got to hit your shots.

“I hit it really awesome and close to the hole so it gave me a lot of opportunities.”

Lee, who sister is an LPGA winner, narrowly missed out on his European Tour card for 2020.

But he picked up the ISPS Handa Vic Open title in February to regain his playing privileges.

And he admitted the UK Swing had not started well for the 22-year-old before his arrival at Ware’s Hanbury Manor, in Hertforshire.

Lee said: “The results weren’t there for me. I missed the cut. I felt pretty down after those two and then you come out here and play really good.

“That’s golf. I worked hard in my break and on the weekends when I missed the cut. So it’s nice to come out here and shoot a good score.”

•Follow Cormac Sharvin and live scores in round two by clicking here.

The post Sharvin shaves it as Howell, Canter and Detry queue up for lead at Hanbury Manor appeared first on Golf North.

The European Tour is bringing in its own four-point plan to tackle slow play in 2020 after changes to the Rules of Golf earlier this year were aimed at speeding up play.
Graphic USGA/The R&A

THE European Tour has announced a concrete four-point plan aimed at tackling the issue of slow play in professional golf.

The plan, which will be implemented at the start of the 2020 season, was approved by the European Tour’s Tournament Committee in July and fine-tuned over the past month.

It will focus on four key areas: regulation, education, innovation and field sizes.

Key to the regulation changes will be a player only having to breach the time allowances twice in a round to incur a one-shot penalty.

In addition, there will be significantly increased fines for players who are regularly placed ‘on the clock’ throughout the season, alongside reduced times for players to play shots.

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said: “We are already at the forefront of pace of play management in the professional game, but after being mandated by our Tournament Committee to be even firmer in dealing with this issue, the time was right to take these additional steps.

“I believe the plan we are implementing for the 2020 season will bring about meaningful change that will make golf even more enjoyable for the players and our fans, whether they are at the course in person or watching on television.”

In addition to the regulation changes, and in a bid to foster meaningful mindset change amongst players, education will also be key to the European Tour’s proactive plan.

All players will now be required to pass an interactive rules test as part of their conditions of membership, while new members will be allocated a dedicated referee to educate them on pace of play policies at the start of their European Tour career.

Technology will also be embraced with the trial of a new ‘Pace of Play’ timing system at next month’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The system will provide referees with the precise times for every group through every hole to make sure that no gaps are missed.

In a ground-breaking development, on-tee displays linked to the system will also provide the players instantaneous information on their position in relation to the group in front.

Depending on the success of the trial of the system and future technological developments in this area, it is something that will looked to be rolled out across a significant number of tournaments on the European Tour, the Challenge Tour and the Staysure Tour in 2020 and beyond.

That will reaffirm the European Tour’s commitment to innovation, Mr Pelley added.

A European Tour spokesman added: “Finally, there will also be a commitment to reducing field sizes where possible, while remaining mindful of providing playing opportunities, as well as using larger starting intervals during the final two rounds of tournaments.”

“It’s time that professional golf does something serious for slow play…5h30min to play 18 holes on a golf course without rough is just too long…way too long! #stopslowplay”

European Tour player Edoardo Molinari on Twitter – April 26, 2019

Tournament Committee chairman David Howell said: “There is no doubt that pace of play is a hot topic in golf and as players we were keen to explore ways to address these issues in various areas.

“We have had some very interesting and robust debates in the process of agreeing the new initiatives,” added the five-time European Tour champion and two-time Ryder Cup player.

“But with a combination of education, deterrents, technology and modifications to the fields, we believe we have arrived at a set of fair and proportional measures to improve the experience for everyone involved in the game.”

The move follows Edoardo Molinari’s recent outburst naming and shaming players fined for slow play on social media.

He tweeted: “It’s time that professional golf does something serious for slow play…5h30min to play 18 holes on a golf course without rough is just too long…way too long! #stopslowplay”

The tweet by Edoardo Molinari in April which sparked the controversy of fines for slow play on the European Tour… he said he would name the worst culprits if his first post was retweeted 1,000 times…. which he did 24 hours later

1. New regulation
When players are out of position and either being monitored or timed, a one-shot penalty will be incurred after two bad times – currently a player would be “monitored” and if he breaches the time allowance (50 seconds for first to play, 40 seconds for second or third to play) he will then be “officially timed.” He would then have to infringe on two more timings before being given a one-shot penalty. Players will, however, have the option to request one time extension per round, giving an additional 40 seconds to hit a shot on such a request.

In-Position timing, introduced at the same time as monitoring, has been strengthened. The time allowed to play a shot when being monitored in position (currently double the out of position times above), will be reduced by 15 per cent, from 100 and 80 seconds down to 85 and 70 seconds respectively for first and second/third to play.  Referees are instructed to be proactive in targeting known slow players for in position timing.

Fines for consistently slow players who are regularly officially timed during the season will increase significantly. For example, a player who is timed 15 times in the 2020 season will have to pay £26,000 in fines as opposed to £9,000 this season.

2. Education
All new members will be assigned a dedicated referee to help educate them on pace of play at the start of their European Tour career

As part of retaining their membership, every member will be required to pass an interactive online rules test with this being implemented for existing members towards the end of the 2019 season and all new members early in the 2020 season. This will be repeated every three years for existing members.

Regular educational videos will be produced by the European Tour’s social media team on key rules and pace of play policies and shared with the players throughout the season in an effort to avoid unnecessary rulings and ensure they better understand the Pace of Play policy.

3. Innovation0
A trial pace-of-play system will be conducted at the BMW PGA Championship from September 19-22. It will provide referees with the times for every group through every hole to make sure that no gaps are missed.

As part of this system, and in a ground-breaking development, on-tee displays on a minimum of three holes will provide groups with their position in relation to the group in front.

4. Field sizes
Field sizes at fully sanctioned events will be reduced from 156 to a minimum of 144 so long as all entered players in Category 18 (the final 111-125 on the previous season’s Race to Dubai) and above make it into the tournament. That will create space for referees to push groups over the Thursday and Friday rounds.

Larger starting intervals will be built into play on Saturday and Sunday to create a better flow between groups.

The list of European Tour players who were guilty of repeatedly bad timings released by Edoardo Molinari on Twitter in April 2019 – only two were fined, including Louis Oosthuizen

The post One-stroke penalty after two bad times at same event as Tour beefs up slow-play rules appeared first on Golf North.