DeLaet And Anderson Lead World Cup Qualifier
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Graham DeLaet And His Partner Stuart Anderson Are Out To The Early Lead In Estonia For The Wold Cup Qualifer As They Try To Represent Canada In China

courtesy John Berkovich/CanTour

JOELAHTME PARISH Estonia - The Canadian duo of Graham DeLaet and Stuart Anderson shot 65 to establish a one stroke lead after round one of the Omega Mission Hills World Cup European Qualifier in Estonia.

The Canadians are one ahead of Welsh pairing of Stephen Dodd and Jamie Donaldson who shot a 66 in Thursday’s opening Fourball round at the Estonian Golf and Country Club.

Four teams are tied for third place after an entertaining opening round that saw the host nation, represented by the Estonian duo of Martin Toom and Mark Suursalu, produce a thrilling 67 to join the Finnish team of Toni Karjalainen and Juha-Pekka Peltomaki, the Portuguese pairing of José-Filipe Lima and Antonió Sobrinho and Austrians Michael A. Moser and Christophe Bausek on five under.

Scotland’s David Drysdale and Alastair Forsyth posted a three under 69 to join Iceland and Morocco in a tie for seventh place.

With the top three finishers in Estonia qualifying for the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China in November, DeLaet and Anderson, both regulars on the Canadian Tour, were pleased to have made a seven under par start to their campaign.

“We got off to a really good start birdieing four of the first five holes. Six and seven slowed us down a bit with a three putt par followed by a bogey but Stuart birdied the tenth and we had birdie chances on every hole after that. We had a lull in the middle of the round but we finished strong,” said DeLaet.

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Anderson Feels He And Partner DeLaet Have A Good Strategy Going Into The Foursomes Portion Of The Event
Talking about their tactics for the forthcoming foursomes, it was clear the duo had given some thought to the more challenging format.

Anderson explained: “We have had three days to look at the course and after the Pro-Am yesterday we decided that Graham would tee off on the odd holes and I would take the even ones. We have a similar game but Graham probably hits it further off the tee than I do.”

“We feel confident in each other and that’s huge. We trust one another and we played well so we will just have to stay aggressive and do our best.”

Estonia’s performance had not gone unnoticed by the Canadian team. Anderson was full of praise for the young duo.

“It’s great that the Estonian team played so well. It’s nice to see them on the leaderboard and it can only be good for golf in Estonia. Hopefully the people of Tallinn will come out and cheer them on tomorrow.”

In Caracas, Canadian Tour member Hugo Leon and Martin Ureta enjoyed another solid day at the Caracas Country Club to claim the outright lead halfway through the Omega Mission Hills World Cup South American Qualifier. 

The Chilean duo are at 16 under par, two strokes ahead of host Venezuela.