Pitch perfect Smith leads the way

DAVID Smith’s short game was off key until he fine tuned it to pitch perfect half-way through the first round of the De Vere Leeds Cup at Oulton Hall.

After spread-eagling the field with a seven-under-par 64, the 37-year-old Swinton Park assistant admitted that shooting low was not on the cards before he blitzed the home stretch with five birdies in six holes.

And he narrowly missed a 12-foot putt on the final green that would have provided him with a sequence of five successive threes.

As it was he still marked down eight of them as he led by three shots from fellow Lancastrian Steve Parry and Cheshire pair Graham Cox and Paul Grannell.
“My wedging was not up my usual standard on the front nine but once I worked out what I was doing wrong I felt I couldn’t miss,” said the former Manchester Open winner.

Birdies on the par fives 12th and 13th set him on his roll and despite only using his putter 29 times he felt he left a couple more chances out on the course.
Smith also fed off Bolton-based Steve Parry, who has a healthy lead in the PGA North Region Order of Merit with two ranking events left after this one.

“He played well and that helped to inspire me,” he added.

Cox, an assistant at Davenport, revealed he had a lesson from his coach Adrian Fryer on Monday which resolved a driving problem as Grannell, from Vale Royal Abbey, continued the form that took him to victory in the Phoenix Gas Classic at Wychwood Park two months ago.

Among 14 players on 69 was 50-year-old Lindrick professional John King, competing in only his second tournament since breaking both his ankles in a buggy accident in Portugal six months ago.

LEADING SCORES: 64 David Smith (Swinton Park); 67 Graham Cox (Davenport), Paul Grannell (Vale Royal Abbey), Steve Parry (NW Golf Academy); 68 James Salt (Ashton-under-Lyne), Nick Sargent (Eastham Lodge), Stuart Runcie (Abegele), John Wells (Cherry Burton); 69 Mark Hancock (Bolton Old Links), John King (Lindrick), John Fisher (Huyton & Prescot), Mark Allen (Hillsborough), Joe Senior (Heysham), Chris Clarke (Waterfront Golf), Grant Hamerton (Brookdale), Jon Cheetham (Gatley), Mark Ridley (South Moor), Chris Sands (Skycaddie), Alex Wrigley (Wynyard), Adrian Ambler (Moor Allerton), Michael Ramsden (Bonhay), Tim Maxwell (Knutsford).