Victorian Ben Eccles has jumped out to the early lead in the Canadian Open Amateur Championship.
Eccles, who captained Victoria to victory in this year’s Interstate Series, fired six birdies and a bogey en route to a five-under-par 66 on the Lambton Golf and Country Club course in Ontario.
On a day interrupted and eventually suspended by heavy rain, Eccles’ round was good enough to share the lead with American Gavin Hall, who played on the same course in the first of four strokeplay rounds of the century-old event.
And there was good news for Australia on the second course, too, with Queenslander Maverick Antcliff firing a three-under-par 69 at the Weston Golf and Country Club to sit tied fourth.
Antcliff’s round, however, was far from regulation. The Augusta State University player from Beaudesert endured two bogeys and a double, but offset them with a slew of seven birdies to shoot the equal lowest score at Weston.
No other Aussies have completed their rounds on a rainswept afternoon, with Dale Brandt-Richards and Kade McBride to take up the chase of their compatriot tomorrow.
The top 70 players and ties of the 240-strong field will compete in the third and fourth rounds at Weston later this week.