GOLF/International Open: It's a good thing the Ryder Cup is four months away. Yesterday, on a course that apparently has been set up to aid and abet the European team in their efforts, not one of the 10 members of the side competing here in the B&H International Open managed to record a round in the 60s.
None of which should set the alarm bells ringing in The Belfry, but it offered sobering thoughts to those entrusted with recapturing the famous silverware come the autumn.
Instead, on a summer's day that bore more than a hint of winter's edge, it was left to Ian Woosnam - Europe's non-playing vice-captain - to offer some solace. The Welshman holed out his second shot for an eagle on the first hole and proceeded to shoot a five-under-par 67, including an out-of-bounds, which left him one shot adrift of the first-round leader Greg Owen, a player who has progressed since winning his tour card in 1998 but who has yet to actually win a tournament.
There was also the strange case of David Carter, a former Irish Open champion, who gave a new meaning entirely to pillow talk. Carter parted company with his caddie (Nick Fidgeon) on Monday, but left it until 10 p.m. on Wednesday to ask his girlfriend Therese - a sister of Swedish golfer Freddie Jacobsen - if she would take over the caddying duties. The chemistry obviously worked, because Carter shot 68 to be in a three-way tie, with Anthony Wall and Angel Cabrera, in third place.
As expected, though, the majority of the field were involved in a battle with the course and many with themselves. Of the Ryder Cup men, only five managed to beat par - Niclas Fasth's 70 was the best, followed by a quartet of 71s that included one from Padraig Harrington - while by far the most worrying score, in terms of form and confidence, was returned by Lee Westwood who fell away to a 79 and, not surprisingly, was in no mood to discuss things afterwards.
Harrington's round featured none of the dramatics of Westwood's, who threw in a pot-pourri of triple-bogey, double-bogey, bogeys and birdies. "I wasn't firing on all cylinders, that's for sure," remarked Harrington, who blamed his putting for much of his woes. "I had trouble with the lines and with my alignment - it is something I have to work on."
The Dubliner, who had 17 pars and a lone birdie - on the eighth, where he hit a sand wedge to five feet - got some solace from the fact that his chipping around the greens was back to its customary sharpness.
Of the other Irish players, Ronan Rafferty had a level par 72; Michael Hoey and Des Smyth - "I'm struggling to find my game," said Smyth - shot 73s. Paul McGinley, who started his round before 8 a.m. with a wake-up call double-bogey on the 10th, his first, and Darren Clarke - "Everything about my game was bad, shocking," he said - shot 74s, while Eamonn Darcy had a 75 that featured problems with the putter.
Rafferty, of them all, probably had most reasons to be happy. He has endured a miserable couple of years on the course - making one cut from 19 tournaments last season and failing to survive in any of his previous four events so far this season - but yesterday he chipped in for a birdie on the last that cheered him up no end. "I'm not consistent with my game off the tee," he claimed, "but I am working to pull it together."
Other big guns who didn't exactly fire on all cylinders included US Open champion Retief Goosen, who had a 73, and Jose Maria Olazabal, who shot 74. But the Brabazon course demands so much mental fortitude as well as long, accurate hitting and good iron play that they shouldn't be discounted.
Owen's surge into the lead caught everyone by surprise, but shouldn't have. In last year's British Open at Lytham, he led the championship after 35 holes. "You learn from being in that sort of position, learn how to handle pressure," he claimed, and, in two of his last three tournaments, he has finished third.
The Englishman, who has decided to make the 60 miles journey from his home in Mansfield each day rather than base himself in the Birmingham area, had seven birdies and a bogey in an impressive 66.
"There's a long way to go yet," said Owen. "There are a lot of good players here, and I am learning more and more to take it one shot at a time. To keep things steady."
Such sound advice seems well suited to a course that has a capacity to bite at any moment - and, no doubt, many of the Ryder Cup men will have taken note.
