Darren Clarke makes strong start at Senior PGA Championship

Darren Clarke’s miserable season showed signs of an upturn as the former British Open champion opened with a fine 68, four under par, to sit just one stroke behind the clubhouse leaders in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Benton Harbor in Michigan on Thursday.

A quintet of players – Joakim Haegmann, Gene Sauers, Mark Hensby, Chris DiMarco and Thomas Levet – signed for 67s in their respective quests for glory in the season’s third Major of the Champions Tour. But 53-year-old Clarke, who has been plagued by injuries this year, showed a welcome return to form in getting into the mix.

“Every week there’s been something wrong with me all year. It’s been my leg, my back, I’ve had to withdraw from a couple tournaments, [I’ve] tendonitis this week. It’s been one of those years, it’s been weird for me because I’ve gone through my whole career never being injured. I’ve never been an injured guy.

“This year for whatever reason, maybe it’s a little bit too much alcohol or getting a little bit too old or whatever, I don’t know, but I’ve just been injured every week. I’ve started feeling a little bit better but my arm is still sore. Those situations, you just have to keep playing and do as well as you can.

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“It’s been frustrating. I haven’t even managed a top-10 this season, keep finishing, whatever, 14th, 15th, around there, which I’m not out here to try can do that. I’m looking to try and play a little bit better than that. I’ve been hitting the ball well and not scoring as well as well but hopefully starting to turn around a little bit,” said the Northern Irishman.

The comforts of home are something that Joost Luiten has enjoyed throughout his career, and the 36-year-old Dutchman’s bid for a third Dutch Open title – to go with his gains of 2013 and 2016 – got off to a perfect start in his home tournament at Bernardus Golf Club in Cromvoirt where he signed for a seven-under-par 65 to claim the first round lead.

Jonny Caldwell, aiming to halt of run of missed cuts in his last two outings at the British Masters and last week’s Soudal Belgian Open, got off to a solid start with an opening 71, one under, but Cormac Sharvin, the other Irish player in the field, who has missed five straight cuts on the DP World Tour, struggled to a 75.

Luiten, a six-time career winner on the European circuit, had four birdies on a flawless front nine of 32 and recovered from a bogey on the 11th to come home with four birdies to sign for a 65 that gave him a one-stroke lead over Eddie Pepperell and Rasmus Hojgaard.

On the PGA Tour, newly crowned US PGA champion Justin Thomas came back to earth a bit with an opening round of 71, one over par, in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, where an early logjam was created at the top of the leaderboard.

Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Harold Varner III and world number one Scottie Scheffler – rebounding from a missed cut in Southern Hills – all signed for four-under-par 66s to assume the early clubhouse lead.

Dutch Open leaderboard

British and Irish unless stated, par 72

65 Joost Luiten (Ned)

66 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Eddie Pepperell

67 Victor Perez (Fra), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Marcel Schneider (Ger)

68 Ewen Ferguson, Stephen Gallacher, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Richard Mansell, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Jordan Smith, David Law, Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Ross Fisher, Ricardo Gouveia (Por), Ross McGowan, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)

69 Thomas Pieters (Bel), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Jack Senior, Matt Wallace, Sebastian Garcia (Esp), Joel Stalter (Fra), JC Ritchie (Rsa)

70 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Scott Hend (Aus), Johannes Veerman (USA), Grant Forrest, Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Antoine Rozner (Fra), Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Darius van Driel (Ned), Callum Shinkwin, Yannik Paul (Ger), Ashley Chesters, Robert Rock, Pep Angles (Esp), Svn-Hwan Kim (USA)

71 Brandon Stone (Rsa), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Ignacio Elvira (Esp), Jonathan Caldwell, John Catlin (USA), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Dario Antonisse (Ned), Lars van Meijel (Ned), Francesco Laporta (Ita), James Morrison, Adrian Otaegui (Esp), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Richie Ramsay, Wil Besseling (Ned), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp), Hugo Leon (Chi), Niklas Noergaard Moeller (Den), Hurly Long (Ger), Sebastian Heisele (Ger), Oliver Wilson, Oliver Farr, Richard McEvoy, Paul Waring, Haydn Porteous (Rsa)

72 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Jorge Campillo (Esp), Steven Brown, Joachim B Hansen (Den), Jeff Winther (Den), Jack Ingham (Ned), Thomas Detry (Bel), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Connor Syme, Romain Langasque (Fra), Craig Howie, Zach Murray (Aus), Haotong Li (Chn)

73 Ashun Wu (Chn), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Jerry Ji (Ned), Rowin Caron (Ned), Andy Sullivan, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Nino Bertasio (Ita), Matthew Southgate, Justin Walters (Rsa), Dale Whitnell, Santiago Tarrio (Esp), Julien Brun (Fra), Frederic Lacroix (Fra), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Esp), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Ricardo Santos (Por), Graeme Storm, David Coupland

74 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Marcus Armitage, Robbie van West (Ned), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Maverick Antcliff (Aus), Scott Jamieson, Espen Kofstad (Nor), Chase Hanna (USA), Daan Huizing (Ned), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Gavin Green (Mal), Robin Roussel (Fra), Shiv Chawrasia (Ind), Huilin Zhang (Chn)

75 Javier Ballesteros (Esp), Angel Hidalgo (Esp), Jason Scrivener (Aus), Matthew Jordan, David Horsey, Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Alejandro Canizares (Esp), George Coetzee (Rsa), Oliver Bekker (Rsa), Marcel Siem (Ger), Andrew Wilson, Alvaro Quiros (Esp), Julian Suri (USA), Cormac Sharvin, Oliver Fisher

76 Rafael Cabrera (Esp), Thijmen Batens (Ned), Kiet van der Weele (Ned), Koen Kouwenaar (Ned), Julien Guerrier (Fra), David Drysdale, Jack Singh-Brar, Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Renato Paratore (Ita), Zander Lombard (Rsa)

77 Chris Wood, Mats Markovits (Ned), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), Lukas Nemecz (Aut)

78 Matthias Schmid (Ger), Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger)

79 Romain Wattel (Fra), David Howell

80 Daniel Gavins, Marc Warren

82 Lev Grinberg (Ukr)