Local knowledge proved invaluable in the first round of the Constance Hotels Pro-Am as resident professional Vishnoo Seeneevassen led his all-Mauritian team to top spot in the Net section at the Links.
Seeneevassen and amateur team members Odie Lim Fat (handicap 10), Aline Wong (h19) and Marguerite Kan Wah (h19) co-ordinated to great effect to amass a Stableford score of 91 points and emerge as the early pacesetters.
The quartet will need to maintain their form in the second round today if they are to stave off the attentions of the David Frost-led combination of Shaun Pollock (scratch), Mike Berry (h8) and Anthony Withers (h18), who closed the day two points off the leaders.
Two teams are only one point further back. Englishman Steve Cipa helped the amateur trio of Paul Lim Fat (h6), and Patrick (h9) and Doreen Chui Wan Cheong (h20) to 88 points, a score also achieved by the Sam Torrance-inspired Raoul Gufflet (h9), Joel Roche (h18) and Robert Espitalier Noel (h7).
The Gross details at the Links paint an altogether different picture, with South African Frost’s team holding a three-point advantage on 78 points from the Roger Chapman-led trio of Claude and Marcel Gris and Stephane Binazet.
There is then a two-point gap to Team Torrance, who are level on 73 points with Andrew Oldcorn and his three amateurs, John Apiafi, Tom Joule and Joel Tadman.
Meanwhile, at the Legend course, Scottish-born Gordon Manson, a resident of Austria for 27 years, provided the inspiration for his team to share joint leadership in the Net contest with the quartet headed by Australian David Merriman.
Manson and his amateur players Jean Paul Shi Shun (h16), Paul Teckham (h13) and Margaret Shi Shun (h19) were matched on 89 points by Merriman’s lady combination of Valerie Raffray (h5), Denise Haarhoff (h15) and Marie Yvonne Mamet (h18).
Italian Costantino Rocca and amateurs Cyril Espitalier Noel (h9), Clement Rey (h18) and Thierry Keonig (h8)are a point away in third, with the Bobby Lincoln-led Andrew Rogers (h15), Peter Rooyakkers (h12) and Silvia Valli (h3) close up on 87.
The Lincoln and Merriman teams occupied second and third places respectively in the Gross event at the Legend after scoring 74 and 73 points respectively but the impressive leaders, five points clear of the field on 79, is the quartet of Zimbabwean Tony Johnstone and amateurs Marcus Ferguson Jones, Sally Ferguson Jones and Rex Hennebury.
Neil Webber
