Carter's trip penalised

The English pair pair of Jonathan Lomas and David Carter had very different experiences on the opening day of the ANZ Championship here. While Lomas had his best European Tour round to take the lead, Carter trailed in with only five of the 156-strong field behind him after being penalised two shots because of a trip to the toilet.

Carter returned to the clubhouse during a short rain stoppage and was not back in position by the time play re-started. "I thought somebody would tell me we were back on," the 29-year-old said. "I understand rules are black and white, but we were miles ahead of the group behind and, after one more hole, we had to wait on the next tee. I was shell-shocked. Nothing like this has happened to me before and I proceeded to take it out on the course rather than calm down.

"I gather that on the US Tour you can be fined for going to the toilet on the course. When I saw John Paramor [the European Tour's chief referee], he said 'this had better be good.' I said I thought it was, but when I explained he said it wasn't good enough and gave me the two shots."

Lomas fired a nine-under-par 64, which translated to 20 points under the modified stableford system. It gave him a five-point lead over France's Raphael Jacquelin. The 33-year-old had eight birdies worth two points each and chipped in for an eagle on the 494-yard 17th, which earned him five more.

The format encourages attacking play with only one point docked for bogeys and three for double bogeys or worse.

* Justin Rose was two shots off the pace on six-under-par 64 after the first round of the Nashua Masters in Port Edward, South Africa. He trailed South Africa's Tich Moore after a day's play made more difficult by intermittent rain.

PGA TOUR ANZ CHAMPIONSHIP (The Lakes, Sydney, Aus) Leading first-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 20pts J Lomas. 15 R Jacquelin (Fr). 13 C Pettersson (Swe). 12 E Walters (Aus), D Lynn. 11 P Sjoland (Swe), M Norgren (Swe), A Stolz (Aus), D Smail (NZ), S Laycock (Aus), J-F Remesy (Fr). 10 S Gallacher, Yeh Wei-tze (Taiw), G Turner (NZ), J Haeggman (Swe), C Parry (Aus), D Howell, G Orr, T Immelman (SA), C Rodiles (Sp), D Gilford. 9 C Hanell (Swe), G Owen, T Price (Aus), M Gronberg (Swe), P O'Malley (Aus), A Hansen (Den). 8 S Gardiner (Aus), P Senior (Aus), T Levet (Fr), B Andrews (Aus). Selected: 7 N Dougherty, A Marshall, D Lee, M Cort, A Cejka (Ger). 6 P Broadhurst, I Garbutt. 5 J Bickerton, P Golding, P Fulke (Swe), A Coltart. 2 S Webster, A Baddeley (Aus). 1 R Russell, P Gow. -1 A Wall, S Walker. (Tournament played under modified stableford points format, with points awarded for the number of shots taken on each hole: albatross 8pts; Eagle 5; birdie 2; par 0; bogey -1; double bogey -2; worse than double bogey -3).