Plenty of work to do for duo

LOCAL stars Ben Eccles and Deyen Lawson will need to get their birdie shoes on today after slow starts at the Victorian Open.

Eccles and Lawson signed off on one-under rounds of 71 in an opening round full of low scores.

They sit nine shots behind Nick Flanagan on a leaderboard logjammed with players at eight, seven and six under.

Lawson has the easier of the second round draws, playing the Creek course in the morning.

Eccles will be hoping for a calm morning when he tees off on the Beach course.

A deflated Eccles, who had a double bogey on the Creek’s par-three fifth after losing a ball, said he missed a big scoring opportunity.

“The scoring was really good, which is no surprise because the conditions were perfect. I am really disappointed,” he said.

“I played all right the front nine and was four-under through 10 but then I was pretty rubbish.”

Lawson made a slow start to his round on the Beach, making the turn at two-over.

But he found his touch on the back nine with birdies on 11, 13 and 15 saving his round.

He described his round as a battle. “I played a little bit better on the back nine. I started pretty average,” he said.

“I was quite flat and then you look at the leaderboard after nine and you’re two-over and you’re 12 back (and it can have an impact).

“I didn’t really get much out of a few shots which I thought were all right. The way the conditions were you have to go low. I will just keep fighting and with a low one tomorrow, who knows?”