{"id":32527,"date":"2026-07-07T03:13:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/32527\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T03:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:13:31","slug":"first-round-of-inverness-four-day-open-completed-as-former-winners-lead-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/32527\/","title":{"rendered":"First round of Inverness Four Day Open completed as former winners lead the field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 4472 2942\" alt=\"Kenny Gaittens on the third during the opening day of the 2026 Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"KJEROE32BVWZ1XCOQE1Q.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.52\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/KJEROE32BVWZ1XCOQE1Q.jpg\" alt=\"Kenny Gaittens on the third during the opening day of the 2026 Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.\"\/>Kenny Gaittens on the third during the opening day of the 2026 Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open. Picture: Daniel Forsyth.<\/p>\n<p>On Day One of the Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open, two past champions lead the qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/sport\/pictures-inverness-four-day-open-swings-into-action-439336\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Two-time winner Kieran Mackay<\/a>, returned a 67, nearly matched by a 68 from John Forbes, impressive in the difficult late afternoon conditions.<\/p>\n<p>With a bunched leaderboard, nine players are within four shots of the lead including Paul Savage, MD of headline sponsor Orion Group (69) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/sport\/fortrose-golfer-wins-inverness-four-day-open-for-first-time-354813\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last year\u2019s runner up Lewis Reid<\/a> (71).<\/p>\n<p>North East players have enjoyed success in the event over the years and Lewis Watt of MacDonald Ellon is well placed after a first round 69.<\/p>\n<p>The best nett score of 66 was shared by Keith Ross, Stuart Caithness, James McAllan and Willie Chisholm, all of the home club.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/sport\/pictures-inverness-four-day-open-swings-into-action-439336\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Read: Pictures from the first day of the Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Full qualifying scores <a href=\"https:\/\/www.invernessgolfclub.co.uk\/igc-4-day-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will be posted on the Inverness Golf Club website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Round two gets underway on Tuesday and the top 16 qualifiers in each of the four sections will then contest the matchplay knockout stages with the finals on Thursday afternoon<\/p>\n<p>    Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/response\/?popform=true&amp;Url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.inverness-courier.co.uk%2fsport%2fformer-winners-lead-the-field-in-opening-round-of-inverness-439392%2f&amp;Title=GOLF+-+First+round+of+Inverness+Four+Day+Open+completed+as+former+winners+lead+the+field\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenny Gaittens on the third during the opening day of the 2026 Inverness Golf Club Four Day Open.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2369,44,3847,2370],"class_list":["post-32527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-all-sport","tag-golf","tag-other-sport","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}