August 15-18
Galgorm Castle GC & Massereene GC, Galgorm, Ballymena, Northern Ireland
$250,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Six under par was the score of the day at the ISPS Handa World Invitational Men | Women, Presented by Modest! Golf Management as Craig Ross and Eleanor Givens wrote their names into the record books as first round leaders.

“It was great to put a 64 together today," said Ross. "I've had some poor performances to start the season, so it's nice to be able to put a strong score together out there today.

“I was missing a few greens early on but made some good up-and-downs over my opening nine and then on the closing nine I was just able to slot in some birdie putts and it was obviously great to finish with five birdies in the last six holes.

“I really enjoyed playing in the Jordan Mixed Open, where we were paired up with one woman and a senior. I know this event is a little bit different in that we are not playing directly against the girls but it's cool to see another format like this on the schedule and I've been really enjoying the experience so far.”

Ross, from Scotland, carded a six under par 64 at Massereene Golf Club while England's Givens signed for her own six under par 67 at Galgorm Castle Golf Club to each lead their respective tournaments by one stroke from two competitors.

“I'm really pleased with how I played today," said Givens. "I played really solid golf and was really happy with how it was. It's actually my first time playing with some new clubs I have so it was nice to start with that and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. 

“There's some interesting weather coming our way. We played in some interesting weather last week in Scotland as well so I've had a lot of practice recently and I'd rather play in sunshine, but will see what comes.

“It's nice to play in the Northern Hemisphere in this format. I played in the Vic Open before so I was really excited to try and do that here and I'm glad I could come.”

Five of the top seven players in tied fourth or better in the men's tournament were playing at Massereene, while 13 of the top 14 in the women's tournament opened their tournament at Galgorm Castle, highlighting how the scoring contrasted at each set-up.

With heavy rain curtailing the Pro-Am on Wednesday, both courses were wet underfoot early on day one, with the majority of the low scorers playing later in the day.

Ross's superb bogey-free 64 set the pace in the men's tournament ahead of England's Richard Mansell and Frenchman Gary Stal on five under par, while Calum Hill, who has won twice in his last three starts is a shot further back among the pack on four under par.

Givens, meanwhile, leads on six under from American Beth Allen and Germany's Karolin Lampert, who are two shots clear of Silvia Banon, Manon de Roey, Annabel Dimmock and local star Stephanie Meadow on three under par.

“I started good, a little shaky in the middle, and then battled back towards the end," said Meadow. "I hit a lot of good putts but nothing really fell, but overall it's a decent start.

It's great so far, it's been run really well. I enjoy being with the men, we do the same thing week in week out, 25 weeks a year, so to see some new faces and even hear the sound on the driving range of the guys hitting is a little strange. It's nice, it's a good change.”

Tomorrow, competitors will switch courses so those playing at Galgorm Castle today will play at Massereene tomorrow and vice versa, before the field is cut to 60 and ties in both the men's and women's tournaments.