Saturday 21 March 2015 18:38, UK
The Madeira Islands Open will be a 36-hole tournament for the second year running after the first round was finally completed on the third day.
The event has been plagued by adverse weather, with no play at all possible on the opening day due to strong winds gusting close to 50mph which also caused a two-hour delay on Friday.
Torrential rain then moved in to force officials to abandon play at 6pm, and the Santo da Serra course was rendered unplayable due to flooding as the tournament was further disrupted on day three.
Half the field had yet to complete their opening rounds, and the decision was taken to reduced the event to 36 holes with further bad weather forecast for Sunday.
Denmark's JB Hansen holds a one-shot lead after his flawless four-under 68, while England's Andrew Marshall and Scotland's Peter Whiteford are among eight players tied for second place.
Whiteford enjoyed four birdies in five holes around the turn and he added another at 18, and he admitted he has benefitted from a break.
Refreshed
He said: “I’m quite happy, played nicely and left a few out there to be honest, which is nice to say considering I was probably the worst golfer on The European Tour last year!
“It’s been blowing a hurricane back home so it’s kind of what I’ve been practicing in anyways. It’s the first time I’ve been on a golf course and enjoyed it for a maybe a year so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
“I feel very refreshed after taking a little break from the game. The driver is a lot better and that was the thing that was killing me last year, but you work twice as hard when you’re playing badly and I was doing more than I should have been doing, working on the wrong things.
“It feels better, the time away helped to refresh the brain a little bit and if I enjoy it I’ll play alright. I don’t care how I do at the moment as long as I enjoy it.
“It’s a major for us on the Challenge Tour, the biggest one of the year so with me certainly, being selfish, I definitely want to get the second round in so I can get a pay cheque and some money onto the rankings.
“After just one round it’s going to be an absolute rat race with a huge number of people on the same scores. It’ll be a shotgun start so it’s not like you’ll be under the cosh coming down the stretch because you’ll never know where the scores will come from.”
The top 63 players are separated by just five shots, and rising Italian star Renato Paratore was among them after the 18-year-old recorded two eagles in the space of seven holes in a round of 70.
Ireland's Kevin Phelan is also on two under, and the players will return at 8am on Sunday for the second and final round, with the top 65 and ties playing in a shotgun start.
