Bermuda have made an inauspicious start to the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris, France.

Teeing off at the Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, the trio of Jarryd Dillas, Damian Palanyandi and Will Haddrell entered the clubhouse at 13-over 157.

That left the island 60th among the 71 countries competing at the 72-hole event being co-hosted by Le Golf National.

“Obviously, none of us are particularly happy with how today went from a team perspective,” Dillas told The Royal Gazette. “But hopefully that’s our bad round out of the way now and we can start moving up the leaderboard beginning tomorrow.”

The two lowest scores from each team in each round counts towards the team score for the round, with that distinction going today to Dillas and Haddrell.

Dillas led the way with a four-over 76 that included two birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey.

“Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche is an old-style course with tree-lined fairways and small, undulating greens, so you have to drive it well in order to control your shots into the greens,” he added.

“I got off to a solid start before making a few bogeys around the turn, but I kept my round together well until finding the water with my approach shot on the final hole.

“Definitely felt like I threw away a decent score at the end there, but that’s golf and we’ve got three important rounds to go.”

Haddrell, who is making his fourth appearance at the event, found the going a bit tougher as he carded 81 with one birdie, eight bogeys and a double bogey.

Debutant Palanyandi, who has been a dominant domestic force on the inaugural Moongate Tour, fared even worse as he carded an 84, which contained seven bogeys, a double bogey and a triple bogey at the par-four 8th.

Dillas is tied for 114th on the individual leaderboard, with Haddrell tied for 174th and Palanyandi tied for 195th with 54 holes left to play.

“Looking ahead to round two, Le Golf National is an absolute beast of a golf course,” Dillas said. “Just an incredible layout with one of the toughest finishing stretches that I’ve ever seen.

“We’re going to have to hit out long clubs a lot better than we did today, but it should be a fun test and I know that we’re all looking forward to the challenge.”

This year’s event is particularly special for Dillas, who is making a record ninth appearance for Bermuda to eclipse the previous mark of eight shared by himself, Louis Moniz and Brendan “Bees” Ingham.

“To surpass stalwarts of the amateur game in Bermuda such as Louis Moniz and Brendan Ingham is special,” he added. “I played my first event at 17 years of age, and now to be at my ninth event in France with this team means a lot.”

The local trio, who all qualified for the biennial championships via the Bermuda Golf Association Order of Merit, are being accompanied by non-playing captain Gary Burnet.

Meanwhile, Japan top the team leaderboard at 14 under through 18 holes, with Spain six shots back in second, followed in a six-way tie for third by Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, who are another shot adrift at seven under.

Taiga Semikawa, of Japan, tops the individual leaderboard after firing the lowest round of nine-under 63 at the Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, reeling off ten birdies.

Germany’s Jonas Baumgartner, Archie Davies, of Wales, Spain’s David Puig and Switzerland’s Cedric Gugler are three shots back tied for second at six under.

The championships runs until Saturday with the winner taking possession of the Eisenhower Trophy.

Denmark are the defending champions.

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