News24.com | Englishman, American share lead at European Tour event in Cyprus

Mitch Waite. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

There was nothing to separate Mitch Waite and Johannes Veerman at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the first day of the inaugural Cyprus Open.

Englishman Waite and American Veerman both made an eagle in their opening 64s at the stunning Aphrodite Hills Resort to sit a single shot clear of their nearest challengers – Andy Sullivan, Sami Valimaki, Joel Stalter, David Drysdale and Jamie Donaldson.

Oliver Farr and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who were in the two groups with one hole of their first round still to complete when play was suspended due to fading light, were part of the logjam on five under. They will finish up on Friday morning.

Waite, playing in just his fourth European Tour event, set the pace in favourable morning scoring conditions after following up a front nine 32 that contained four birdies with an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys on the homeward nine to jump to seven under par.

Veerman joined Waite at the summit around an hour later after adding five birdies to his eagle at the tenth in a sparkling first round effort.

Leading first-round scores from the European Tour’s inaugural Cyprus
Open on Thursday at Paphos (GBR & IRL unless stated/par 71):

64 – Mitch Waite, Johannes Veerman (USA)

65 – Andy Sullivan, Sami Valimaki (FIN), David Drysdale, Joel Stalter (FRA), Jamie Donaldson

66
– David Horsey, Lorenzo Gagli (ITA), Richard McEvoy, Oliver Farr,
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP), Will Enefer, Pedro Figueiredo (POR),
Thomas Detry (BEL), Marcus Armitage, Clement Sordet (FRA)

67 –
Shubhankar Sharma (IND), Wil Besseling (NED), Jack Senior, Jordan Smith,
Callum Shinkwin, Adrien Saddier (FRA), Matthias Schwab (AUT), Laurie
Canter, Oliver Wilson