Lindrick's Bailey Gill heads Yorkshire challenge in Lytham Trophy

Lindrick's Bailey Gill, picked this week to play for England against France next weekend, was Yorkshire's leading player after day one of the Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Lindrick's Bailey Gill.Lindrick's Bailey Gill.
Lindrick's Bailey Gill.

Gill shot a two-over-par 72, with even nines of one over the card, and trails leader Billy McKenzie (Rowlands Castle) by six shots.

No fewer than five Yorkshire competitors shot four-over-par 75, including Malton & Norton’s David Hague, who is also in England’s team for the biennial match with France at Vidauban Golf Club, near Nice.

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Hague got to the turn in one over, but took 40 shots to reach the clubhouse, a solitary birdie overwhelmed by five bogeys.

Yorkshire champion Alex Fitzpatrick (Hallamshire) was four over after his first three holes and hit the turn in 39 before showing his class with a par homeward run.

Moortown’s David Houlding also stumbled at the start, losing four strokes to par on the opening four holes, but played the remaining stretch in one over with the help of three birdies.

Leeds Golf Centre’s Ben Firth birdied the first, a 206-yard par-3, but shed four shots in the next three holes before eagling the 589-yard par-5 seventh.

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Hallowes’s Sam Bairstow put together his 75 with a level-par outward run and 41 coming home due to three bogeys and a double.

Former Yorkshire champion Ben Hutchinson (Howley Hall) carded 77, he too coming home in 41 after reaching the turn only two over.

Former England Boys’ Order of Merit winner Charlie Thornton, of Fulford, had an 80 that included an ugly seventh on the hole Firth had eagled.

McKenzie’s 66 included half a dozen birdies.