The 2024 European Senior Championships got off to a cold start in Luxembourg on Thursday morning.
144 of the continent's best 50-and-over amateur players have gathered at Kikuka Golf & Country Club for the 29th edition of the European Senior Men's and Ladies' contests.
The first of three rounds of stroke play got underway with the thermometer reading just seven degrees in the early morning at Kikuoka, but that didn't stop 11 players shooting red numbers on Day 1.
Rodrigo Lacerda Soares (FRA) and Andreas Bauer (SUI) lead the men's competition after returning four-under-par rounds of 68. Both players eagled the par-5 18th to set the target early for the rest of the field.
Eight other men carded under-par rounds on Thursday at Kikuoka. Among them is Denmark's Morten Findsen Schou, who is not only the youngest player in the men's field but also entered with the lowest handicap index of +5.4. The Dane reached the turn at +2 but an impressive five-under-par back-nine totalled 69 (-3) and the only other round in the 60s of the day.
In the women's championship, contested by 54 players, Jannicke Nielsen Bakken (NOR) was the only female player to sign for a red number with an opening 70 (-2). However hot on her heels is three-time European Senior Ladies' champion, Macarena Campomanes, who got her fourth title bid off to a steady start with a round of level-par 72.
Showers are forecast for Friday's second round, which will see players try to position themselves closer to the leaders, or try and get inside the T54 and T33 cut lines for men and women respectively.
