Whitehouse grabs Cadillac lead

TOM WHITEHOUSE has adopted a new relaxed but determined attitude, and it paid off as he fired a six-under-par 66 to lead after the first round of the Cadillac Russian Open.

The 25-year-old from Birmingham admitted the mental side of his game had been costing him since he won the Estoril Challenge Open in Portugal last year, but a change of perspective helped him enormously around the Le Meridien Moscow Country Club.

He carded seven birdies and only one bogey, playing with a wrist injury and in constant heavy rain for his final nine holes, to lead by one from compatriot Iain Pyman, winner of this co-sanctioned European and Challenge Tour event in 1999 and 2002, Scotland’s David Drysdale, Swedes Mikael Lundberg and Fredrik Widmark and Spain’s Jesus Maria Arruti.