Ben Mar­tin ex­celled on the open­ing day of the Ste Madeleine Open, fir­ing a sen­sa­tion­al five-un­der-par 65 to seize con­trol of the Pro­fes­sion­al Flight on Fri­day.

​Mar­tin’s blis­ter­ing per­for­mance set the tone for a thriller at the Ste Madeleine course. Af­ter turn­ing with a sol­id two-un­der-par 35 on the front nine, he shift­ed in­to an­oth­er gear on the back stretch, scorch­ing the re­turn nine in just 30 strokes. His five-un­der round gives him a two-shot cush­ion head­ing in­to the week­end over vet­er­an con­tender Chris Richards Snr, who stayed right on his heels with a su­perb open­ing 67.

Tal­in Ra­jen­dranath sits three shots fur­ther adrift af­ter card­ing an even-par 70, while Chris McMil­lan (81) and Ricky Camp­bell (82) round out the pro­fes­sion­al field.

Be­hind the pro­fes­sion­al field, the ac­tion was equal­ly com­pelling across the low­er di­vi­sions. In the Cham­pi­onship Flight, Mar­cus Ling picked up right where he left off ear­li­er this sea­son. Fresh off his vic­to­ry at the Brechin Cas­tle Open, Ling grabbed the ear­ly lead by post­ing a 70. How­ev­er, his ad­van­tage re­mains ra­zor-thin. A tight chas­ing pack is lurk­ing close be­hind, led by Ethan Col­lier and Clint Al­fred, who both turned in match­ing rounds of two-over-par 72.

​For­mer Ste Madeleine cham­pi­on Liam Bry­den al­so put him­self firm­ly in the mix with a grit­ty 73, match­ing open­ing ef­forts from Chris­ton Bap­tiste and Dravid Bhim. Ay­den Ali is al­so well with­in strik­ing dis­tance af­ter card­ing a 75, set­ting up a fran­tic sec­ond round as the field jos­tles for po­si­tion head­ing in­to ac­tion to­day.

​In the First Flight, Sheriss Ram­per­sad put on a dis­play of re­mark­able con­sis­ten­cy, post­ing the top gross score of the day with a 73 to take ear­ly com­mand of his di­vi­sion. Dr Shi­va Ar­joon­s­ingh rests three shots back af­ter record­ing a 76, while a tight trio con­sist­ing of Roger Williams, Steve Dur­gan­deen, and Shaz­a­ad Ali re­mains locked in a bat­tle for third af­ter each post­ing rounds of 77. The com­pet­i­tive First Flight line­up al­so fea­tures for­mer Ste Madeleine Sec­ond Flight win­ner Amir Ali, along­side Kevesh Ram­nath and Dr Avind Ali, all of whom re­main ca­pa­ble of mak­ing a surge on day two.

​The im­pres­sive scor­ing across all di­vi­sions was made pos­si­ble by ide­al play­ing con­di­tions. Fol­low­ing a week dom­i­nat­ed by heavy rain­fall, com­peti­tors were wel­comed by glo­ri­ous sun­shine, warm breezes, and a lush lay­out. The greens staff at Ste Madeleine earned high praise from the field, hav­ing im­mac­u­late­ly pre­pared the fair­ways and putting sur­faces to with­stand the ear­ly weath­er and de­liv­er true play­ing con­di­tions for the pre­mier three-day show­case.

At­ten­tion now turns to to­day, Sep­tem­ber 19, as the tour­na­ment ex­pands to full ca­pac­i­ty across every di­vi­sion. While the Pro­fes­sion­al, Cham­pi­onship, and First Flights re­turn to build on their open­ing mo­men­tum, the com­pe­ti­tion of­fi­cial­ly wel­comes the Ladies Flight, along­side the Men’s Sec­ond and Third Flights for their open­ing rounds.

This year’s tour­na­ment will fea­ture the largest ladies’ con­tin­gent in the event’s his­to­ry, with Em­i­lie Ram­sa­hai, Vi­o­let Roopc­hand and Gail Ra­jack among the main con­tenders for top ho­n­ours.

​Ac­tion be­gins at the break of dawn, with the Third Flight Men sched­uled as the first group off the tee at 6.24 am. With ide­al weath­er fore­cast­ed, an im­mac­u­late venue, and tight­ly con­test­ed leader­boards, tour­na­ment or­gan­is­ers are ex­pect­ing a bumper crowd through­out the week­end. All are in­vit­ed to come out and wit­ness the ac­tion first­hand as Trinidad and To­ba­go's top golfers bat­tle for glo­ry.

Fri­day's re­sults

Pro­fes­sion­al Flight

Ben Mar­tin 65

Chris Richards Snr 67

Tal­in Ra­jen­dranath 70

Chris Mc Mil­lan 81

Ricky Camp­bell 82

Cham­pi­onship Flight

Clint Al­fred 57

Chris­ton Bap­tiste 58

Dravid Bhim 67

Ethan Col­lier 69

Mar­cus Ling 70

Ay­den Ali 72

Liam Bry­den 73

Wayne Bap­tiste 73

First Flight

Roger Williams 47

Shaz­a­ad Ali 47

Dr. Shi­va Ar­joon­s­ingh 49

Rakesh Seenath 49

Steve Dur­gan­deen 50

Nand­lal Ram­lakhan 51

Sheriss Ram­per­sad 52

Dr. Avind Ali 55

Chris­t­ian Khan 55

Kevesh Ram­nath 60

Amir Ali 60

Surooj Har­riper­sad 63