Oscar Lengden fired an excellent 66 to lead the way as day one of the Shot Clock Masters proved to be an enormous success at Diamond Country Club.
The European Tour was once again breaking new ground, with every player in the field on the clock for every shot as part of the Tour’s bid to combat slow play.
Over a 72-hole strokeplay this week, the players have a 50-second allowance for a first to play approach shot (including a par three tee-shot), chip or putt and a 40-second allowance for a tee-shot on a par four or par five, or second or third to play approach shot, chip or putt.
Failure to make your shot in the allotted time leads to a one-shot penalty on the hole in question but players are allowed two 40-second time-extensions in any one round.
At the end of play on Thursday, not one player in the field had registered a time penalty, with five three-balls getting round the testing layout just outside Vienna in less than four hours.
Swede Lengden led the way at six under, a shot ahead of countryman Peter Hanson, evergreen Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and Finn Tapio Pulkkanen.
Danish duo Anders Hansen and Jeppe Pape Huldahl, Scottish pair Bradley Neil and Connor Syme, Finn Mikko Korhonen and South African Justin Walters were then at four under.
Lengden already has a win on the Challenge Tour under his belt this season and was delighted to bring his good form to Austria.
‘It was great, it was fun to be out there again, I know my swing pretty well now and coming from a good week last week in Switzerland as well it was just fun playing today,’ he said.
The three remaining South Africans – Zander Lombard, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Trevor Fisher Jnr – failed to follow the foundation laid by Walters. The 37-year-old was in the clubhouse early but was not joined on the front page of the leaderboard by any of his countrymen.
Lombard tripled his 18th hole to finish level alongside Bezuidenhout, who dropped three shots in his last five holes to shoot 72. Fisher Jnr shot 75 despite opening with an eagle. That early joy was erased with four bogeys on the front side to eradicate his good start.
