Grant and Moriarty in Challenge Chase

Stephen Grant was the leading Irish player at Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Golf & Spa, at the end of Thursday after firing a three under par 69 in the Challenge Tour event. Having made the turn in 33, the former Shamrock Rovers player card three bogeys on the way home for share of 9th place.

Colm Moriarty was a stroke further back following a round of 70, in a crowded field that sees the Glasson golfer in 18th place.

Robert Dinwiddie and Stuart Manley set the pace on seven under par after the opening day of the English Challenge at a sun-drenched Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Golf & Spa, where they both carded scorching 65s to hold the tied lead.

There was not a bogey between them over the difficult lay-out on the Gainsborough Course at the Essex venue, just outside Colchester, as they lay one shot ahead of second-placed Francis McGuirk.Welshman Manley started strongly, holing a 20 foot putt to open with a birdie at the first before chipping in from 25 yards for eagle at the fifth. He picked up another shot at the ninth hole before birdies at the 12th, 14th and 15th put him into contention to claim his maiden Challenge Tour title.

“I am high on confidence,” said the 33 year old. “I've been playing nicely recently and I had a good lesson with my coach last week and again this week and I felt things changing for me. I've been putting great recently but I haven’t been hitting the ball well enough to go with it.“But I'm hitting the ball well now and I’ll do well if I can do that because I normally putt pretty well. I am confident because there’s no pressure on me at the moment and as long as I'm committed I’ll do well.

“This is the best I've felt all year really and I thought, ‘just try and be more aggressive this week’ because I've got a good enough short game to get up and down if I do miss a few greens so I wanted to push on and make birdies and be committed.”England’s Dinwiddie is vying for a fourth Challenge Tour title and he started his home tournament perfectly with a birdie at the first hole before two more gained shots at the third and sixth. He kept a blemish off his card with a superb save at the eighth before a birdie at the ninth took him to the turn in three under.

He gave himself plenty of birdie chances on the back nine but could only capitalise at the 14th, 16th and 18th, where he sank a 20-footer in front of the watching crowds to crown a superb day.“It’s not an easy course and you can easily get out of position,” said the 29 year old. “But I found in the Pro-Am that I was reading the greens well and I feel like I've been putting well all year, I just needed to read the greens better.

“Hopefully I can read them well now for the rest of the week. It was a nice two on the last because it’s not an easy hole. It will be exactly the same game plan tomorrow and hopefully I can keep it going.”

Another Englishman, McGuirk, was a shot further back after three consecutive birdies from the third hole took him to the turn in three under before four birdies and a bogey meant he signed for a six under par round of 66.Julien Grillon of France was another shot back on five under after a 67 while four Englishmen – Jordan Gibb, Matt Haines, Sam Little and Chris Paisley – were all on three under and still in with a shout of claiming the title in the only England-based Challenge Tour event of the 2012 season

Tim Rice finished with a 74 and needs a few birdies on Friday to get inside the cut, currently projected at +1.

McNulty Best of the Senior Irish

Mark McNulty led the Irish challenge at The Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex  after a round of 65 on Thursday on the Ailsa Course at Turnberry  to finish the day 5 under, and one stroke off the leader Berhnard Langer.

Philip Walton signed for a 73 after two double bogeys on the back nine - on the par three 11th and then the par four 16th - to leave him trailing nine shots off the pace.

Des Smyth was one stroke further adrift with Denis O'Sullivan and Eamonn Darcy +6 after both carded rounds of 76.

Bernhard Langer, the last man to win the event in Scottish soil, began his bid to reclaim the title with a flawless six under par opening round 64 to establish one shot lead at Turnberry.

The former World Number One and two-time Masters Champion birdied the second, third and seventh holes before the turn and then produced an almost identical back nine, picking up further shots on the 11th, 12th and 17th holes.

“I’m very pleased with the way I played,” said Langer, who was Senior Open Champion at Carnoustie two years ago. “I played smart, played well, hit some good drives, good iron shots and made a few putts. I maybe even left a couple of putts out there, as well. But overall, it was very solid. No blemishes.”

“The only trouble really I had was the 18th. I drove it in the fairway bunker but I had checked it out in practice, that bunker is maybe the only one on the whole golf course where you have a chance to reach the green. I didn't reach the green but I got close enough to get it up and down.” 

Langer, who finished in a tie for 12th in last year’s event at Walton Heath, claimed his maiden Senior Major two years ago when he completed a wire-to-wire victory at Carnoustie in 2010, a victory he described as “one of the highlights of my career”.

It was also one that propelled the ten-times Ryder Cup player onto a second Major triumph the following week when he won the US Senior Open at Sahalee Country Club, and the Anhausen man looked to have brought his fine season form to Scotland this week.

In all three of his appearances on the European Senior Tour this year Langer has finished in the top five, narrowly missing out on a third Senior Major when he surrendered a four shot lead in the final round of the US Senior Open, eventually finishing tied for second as Chapman seized his second Major title in succession at Indianwood in Michigan.

“It still hurts and it's going to hurt a while,” he reflected. “That's golf. Roger played a great round of golf and I can't take that away from him. It was my tournament to win or to lose, and I just didn't perform well enough on Sunday. 

“But I took a lot of positives away from it. It was some of the best golf I've played in my whole life.”

Despite having never won an Open Championship during a glittering career that has yielded 42 European Tour titles – including his two Masters titles in 1985 and 1993 – Langer retains a good record on links courses and in the aforementioned Championship, having finished in the top ten on eight occasions, including two second place finishes at the 1981 and 1984 Opens.

Langer also finished in a tie for third when Turnberry hosted The Open in 1986 as Greg Norman stormed to his first Claret Jug, so the Ailsa has long suited the German’s eye.

He said: “It's playing very long. Someone said this course is playing longer than they played last week at The Open Championship.

“But I like links golf. It's just fun to hit off that kind of turf and you really have to think your way around some of these golf courses, not just hit driver, blast it away and find it and hit it again. That's what makes it so much fun.”

Ireland’s Mark McNulty, who opened with back-to-back birdies, is Langer’s nearest challenger following a five under par 65, while six players, including 1996 Open Champion Tom Lehman, are a shot further back on four under par.

“I kept myself out of trouble today, and that's my game plan this week, trying to strategise myself around this golf course, because as we have all seen over the years that when you play these links courses and get into these bunkers, all hell can break loose,” said McNulty.

“I was very lucky to get off to a good start, get a couple of birdies and I just played very solid.”

Tom Watson made a satisfying return to Turnberry three years after almost winning The Open Championship at the age of 59.

The American, winner of Claret Jug over the Ailsa Course in 1977 as well as The Senior Open Championship in 2003, carded a one under par opening round 69 to claim bragging rights in his mouth-watering three-ball with Englishman Roger Chapman and Australian Greg Norman.

“It was a good start,” said Watson. “The golf course was there for the taking if you played some good shots. On the back nine, I got sloppy, but the front nine I played pretty well and I was happy with the way I started.”

After winning both the US Senior PGA Championship and US Senior Open Championship already this season, Chapman began his bid for the hat-trick of Senior Majors with a two over par 72, the same as Norman who won The 1986 Open Championship over the Ailsa Course.

Leaderboard - R1