Denis Durnian’s decision of driver change paid him off on day one at the Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters
England’s Denis Durnian is leading the Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters at the Woburn Golf Club. A sparkling three-under par 69 in difficult conditions on the first day gave him a one-shot lead over a bunch of nine players.
The players who shared the second spot include Peter Fowler, Tony Johnstone, Russ Drummond, Gordon Brand Jnr, John Gould, Mark Belsham, Andrew Sherborne, Juan Quiros and Mike Cunning.
Tim Thelen and Katsuyoshi Tomori each posted a one-under par 71 and tied for the 11th position. All the other players failed to break the par mark, which speaks of the toughness of the course.
Durnian credited his new driver for a brilliant performance in the opening round. He himself admitted that he struggled with his game off the tee, right from the start of the 2012 golf season.
However, the decision of changing the driver paid him off when he posted seven birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey.
“I’ve been driving it so badly all season, so the Ping guy gave me a new driver the other day, and today I ripped it down the middle of every fairway,” he explained. “I’ve not been on the fairways all year, so it was a nice change not to always be hitting
out of the trees”.
“Everything else was going nicely today and I holed a few good putts,” added the 62-year-old. “I got a bit nervous towards the end but hung on and three under par is a good score. The three birdies in a row around the turn (from the eighth) really gave me
some momentum”.
He also stated that the key to success in Woburn was to keep the ball straight on the fairways, which he tried to do on the first 18 holes.
He now plans to keep the momentum going into the weekend and take the European Seniors Tour title home after spending 10 years without a single victory.
In total, he won three tournaments on the tour, the last of which came in 2002 at the Estoril Seniors Tour Championship. Charles Church Scottish Seniors Open was the other tournament that he won in the same year.
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