Morris leads in Madeira
As bad weather played havoc at the US Masters, some of the European Tour’s lesser lights made the most of rare perfect conditions in the Madeira Island Open.
Birmingham’s Matthew Morris, who normally plays on the second-tier Challenge Tour, set the clubhouse target with a seven-under-par 65 at Santo da Serra, which at 2,300ft above sea level is often plagued by bad weather.
Of the 78 early starts, 56 shot par or better on a calm morning, Morris finishing one shot ahead of five players on six under.
Austria’s Markus Brier, who led after the first round of last week’s Portuguese Open, fired a hole-in-one on the fourth, holing a six iron from 202 yards in his 66.
And England’s Gary Emerson, who moved from joint-last after two rounds in Portugal to seventh with rounds of 66 and 67, carried on from where he left off with six birdies and an eagle.
With play likely to continue until at least 8pm, Morris could yet be overtaken with course record holder Stephen Scahill leading the charge at six under with eight holes to play.
But the 27-year-old could still celebrate leading a tour event for the first time as he looks to build on his victory in the Danish Open on the Challenge Tour last season.
“I have worked really hard over the winter and nothing has really gone my way to be honest,” said Morris, whose previous best finish on tour was 39th here last year.
“But I feel like I have prepared properly this week which maybe I haven’t done for the other tournaments and I think that’s the way I will prepare from now on.”
Emerson put his improved form down to working with psychologist Jamil Quireshi, who also works with rising star Nick Dougherty, a first-time winner in Singapore earlier this season.
“We get on really well and the stuff he has been doing with me has definitely worked so he has to take a lot of the credit for how I’ve been playing the past three or four rounds,” said Emerson, who won his first tour title in the BMW Russian Open last year, a similar joint-sanctioned event to this week.
“I actually played very well in Dubai and Qatar without making any putts so it was just a matter of time before the putts started dropping.”
Earlier in the day a rare albatross had given Scotland’s Andrew Coltart a chance to make an equally rare halfway cut.
Starting from the 10th, Coltart birdied his opening hole then fired an albatross two on the 11th – the second on the European Tour this season – holing out with a six iron from 226 yards on the 572-yard par five.
Unsurprisingly Coltart was unable to maintain such an electrifying start and bogeyed the 13th before a birdie on the 17th took him out in 32.
Another bogey followed on the second but Coltart hit straight back with a birdie on the par five third record a four-under 68, his first sub-70 round of the season.
It was a marked contrast to the Scot’s form so far in 2005, which has seen him fail to play more than two rounds in any of his six events after ending last season with five missed cuts in a row.
Coltart finished 143rd on the Order of Merit last season without a single top 10 finish and only retained his playing rights due to his position on the tour’s career money list.
On his albatross, Coltart said: “I couldn’t see the flag because of a mound in front of me but hit it on the perfect line. When we got to the green there were two balls on there but neither of them were mine.
“We thought it was a bit strange but had a look in the hole and it was in there. It was nice to get a leg up rather than a knock on the head and I’m delighted with that.”
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