Michael Sims faces a uphill battle in his attempt to make the cut, while Kim Swan has no chance of qualifying for weekend play, after the former failed to take full advantage of favourable conditions at Port Royal Golf Course, while the latter endured a disastrous first round outing.
Sims would have desired more from his opening round than a two-over-73, when greens were most receptive and the scoreboard reflected such, with a bevy of ‘red’ scores, led by Austin Smotherman and Harrison Endycott, both having carded nine-under-par rounds of 62.
“It’s a little disappointing,” started Sims in describing his first round play, which left him in 127th position. “This is the easiest you’re going to see this place. I had a couple of bad swings and they cost me.
“I need to make some putts tomorrow, it’s going to get windy, so we’ll see what happens.”
Two holes in particular turned Sims’ effort in the wrong direction, with the former Korn Ferry Tour professional ruing his driving attempts at the picturesque 16th hole, where he pulled one into the ocean, while at number seven he again hooked his tee shot with birdie a must at the par-five.
“I just pulled the heck out of it and the worst place to miss is in the Atlantic Ocean,” said Sims. “You have all of Bermuda on your right and I hit it left into the Atlantic.
“The cut is likely to be five or six and it’ll take a really good round of golf tomorrow to play into the weekend.”
There will be no weekend competition for Swan, who registered a round he’d more so want to forget, as he carded a field worst 89, that saw him balloon to 12-over-par after the first nine holes, before he was able to fare marginally better coming in.
“I was a little tentative and it showed around the greens, with some recovery shots,” said a dejected Swan. “I did not play to the standard I needed to in order to convert saves.
“I actually hit the ball quite solidly, but not being as long as these guys I’m hitting lower shots into the greens, so they’re slipping off of the back edges, making my short game necessary to just scramble and I made some errors around the greens.”
Swan’s worst hole was the par-four 12th, where Swan wound up requiring nine shots to find the bottom, which really served to deflate the former European Tour professional.
“I was pin high. I hit a nice drive, which slid off to the right side and I took the safety shot to run it up on the bank and it rolled back and I repeated that four times.”
On Friday Swan will be playing for a degree of redemption.
“I’m playing for pride,” he said. “I’m looking to attack the fairways and greens and play.
“I was trying to do that today and made a lot of solid shots, but it’s all good. It’s good that you feel a little something, which means that you care about what you’re doing.”
Sims and Swan, who stands 131st, will join fellow locals Jaryyd Dillas (T85) and Nick Jones (T110) as the competition continues on Friday.
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