Thursday 9 February 2017 17:57, UK
Dame Laura Davies rolled back the years as she started the new Ladies European Tour season in blistering form at the Oates Vic Open in Australia.
Davies took full advantage of benign early conditions to fire a superb eight-under 65 which equalled Sarah-Jane Smith's course record and earned her a two-shot lead over a high-quality field.
The evergreen 53-year-old, who has 84 professional victories in her glittering career, carded an eagle and six birdies while keeping a bogey off her card as her new cross-handed putting technique paid handsome rewards.
Davies needed only 29 putts on the opening day and enjoyed a sparkling run of four birdies and an eagle mid-round which propelled her to the top of the leaderboard.
After starting at the 10th, the four-time major champion made an encouraging start with a birdie at the 12th, and she reeled off three in a row from the 16th to cap a back-nine 33.
Davies made it for birdies in a row at the first and then added an eagle at the next, and she did well to get up and down from a greenside bunker to save par at the seventh before knocking a sweet six-iron to 15 feet at the eighth and converting the putt for birdie.
"I've been working on my putting, that's been the weakest part (of my game)," said Davies, who has a two-stroke advantage over fellow English players Holly Clyburn and Mel Reid, German Solheim Cup star Sandra Gal, Denmark's Nicole Broch Larsen and Australian Whitney Hillier.
"I drove it well and it was just a really solid day. We were really lucky with the conditions, we hardly had any wind at all.
"I feel like I'm just learning how to compete again because you can't just jump in with a chance to win and think you're going to do it when you've had such a long time trying to make cuts. I'm not saying I'm going to win this but I would love dearly to shoot four rounds under par: that would be my goal.
"If I play like I did today, I'll win - but who's to say I'm going to play like that?"
Reid missed out on outright second place when she dropped her only shot of the day at her final hole to take a little gloss off her 67, which she began with an eagle at the 10th while making four birdies in five holes mid-round.
Clyburn got to seven under with two holes to play, but she lost momentum with a double-bogey six at the eighth before getting one shot back immediately with a closing birdie at the ninth - her eighth gain of the day.
