SA's Stone two behind English Championship leader

South African Brandon Stone's carded a first-round 65 to finish two shots behind Northern Ireland's Cormac Sharvin at the 2020 English Championship on Thursday.

Cormac teed off in the final group in Hertfordshire and delivered a course-record 63 to sit at eight under par, nudging ahead of six players locked at seven under.

David Howell rolled back the years and looked to have earned his first 18-hole lead at a European Tour event in 636 appearances as he joined Australian duo Jason Scrivener and Min Woo Lee, Zimbabwe's Scott Vincent, Hero Open runner up Thomas Detry and Laurie Canter as co-leader.

But the 27-year-old Sharvin, who graduated to the European Tour after finishing the 2019 Challenge Tour season in 11th position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, carded ten birdies and two dropped shots to take the outright lead.

"It was a nice round, played really well, didn't do too much wrong," Sharvin said.

"Put it on the fairway, hit a lot of good shots and holed a few putts as well and it all added up to 63. Pretty happy to start well.

"A long way to go but it's always nice to shoot a good score on the first day and not put yourself out of it."

Jack Senior, who teed off in the opening group and turned in 29, was one 12 players to be two shots off the lead, which included Stone, Danish rising star Rasmus Højgaard and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts.

FIRST-ROUND SCORES

63 - Cormac Sharvin (NIR)

64 - Scott Vincent (ZIM), Min Woo Lee (AUS), David Howell (ENG), Jason Scrivener (AUS), Thomas Detry (BEL), Laurie Canter (ENG)

65 - Jack Senior (ENG), Oscar Lengden (SWE), Romain Wattel (FRA), Adrian Otaegui (ESP), Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL), Martin Leth Simonsen (DEN), Rasmus Hoejgaard (DEN), Brandon Stone (RSA), Romain Langasque (FRA), David Drysdale (SCO), Connor Syme (SCO), Richard Bland (ENG)

Selected

66 - Lee Westwood (ENG)

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