With a flawless round of 64 strokes (6 under par), defending champion Adilson Da Silva leads after the first day of the 26th Swiss Seniors Open.
The Brazilian shares the lead with South African James Kingston, the 2022 Bad Ragaz champion, while Switzerland's André Bossert is in 4th place with 66 strokes.
Adilson Da Silva traveled to Switzerland this week with the aim of successfully defending his title from the previous year and earning important points for the annual ranking (Order of Merit) of the European Senior Tour. The 52-year-old Brazilian has come into form in time for this endeavor - three weeks ago, he secured his first win of the 2024 season at the "Irish Legends" on the third extra hole in a play-off against Sweden's Patrik Sjöland.
The two opponents will play in the same group in the first two rounds of the Swiss Seniors Open, which has prize money of 300,000 euros. With a flawless round of six birdies and twelve pars, the defending champion announced his ambitions with a 64 on the scorecard. Sjöland was only able to keep up on the first nine holes, but then fell back with four bogeys (with a total of five birdies) and signed a 69 card. Only the 2022 Swiss Seniors Open champion was able to keep up with the defending champion on Friday: James Kingston, who started the tournament after Da Silva, played five birdies, one eagle, one bogey and eleven pars in windy conditions. The South African and the Brazilian are therefore joint leaders of the field after the first day.
André Bossert, once again the only Swiss player in the field and with his daughter Nina in the bag as caddie, played a round of 66 strokes (6 birdies, 2 bogeys, 10 pars) and is in fourth place after the first day. The 60-year-old from Zurich still has a lot to play for in the two rounds at the weekend. Because he can also explode on the Ragaz course - in 2015 he equaled the course record on the final day with a round of 61.
The only major winner in the field, New Zealander Michael Campbell, is in 12th place after the first round with 68 strokes together with Thomas Gögele from southern Germany. Austrian Markus Brier and 67-year-old Italian Costantino Rocca opened with a par round of 70 strokes and share 25th place for the time being.
SDA
