Australian Open: Darren Clarke arrived in Sydney hoping a good tournament would get him into the world's top 50 but on an eventful opening day of the Australian Open he was forced to make the best of a bad situation, while the bad boy of golf, John Daly, threw the toys out of the pram.
Clarke started on the back nine and opened with a regulation par at the 10th before early disaster struck in the form of a triple bogey seven at the next. He did well to regain his composure and immediately picked up a birdie at the 12th before eventually reaching the turn on two-over 38.
The 40-year-old's powers of recovery continued on his inward half with birdies at the second and third. With no more dropped shots Clarke came home in two-under to sign for an opening level par 72 at the Royal Sydney venue.
It wasn't the start Clarke was looking for as he made the long trip Down Under in the hope of getting back into the world's top 50 by the end of the year. He is currently 66th in the standings and outside automatic qualification for next year's US Masters.
At level par this year's BWM Asian Open and KLM Open winner is seven shots off the first round lead held by a trio of Australians. Mathew Goggin, Stephen Dartnall and Ewan Porter lead on seven-under after equaling John Sendon's course record 65 set in 2006.
Goggin continued the good form which saw him finish runner up to Geoff Ogilvy in last week's Australian PGA Championship with the bulk of his scoring made with six birdies on the front nine.
Dartnall shot 62 in Monday's qualifying to earn his place in the field and today he managed six birdies and an eagle. Porter birdied the final two holes for his share of the lead.
New Zealand duo Mark Brown and David Smail, who led for much of the day after early five-under 67s, are joined by Australian Masters winner Rod Pampling in a tie for fourth.
Senden made a hole in one on the par-three 13th en route to an opening 69 while defending champion Craig Parry struggled to a one-over 73
Daly's roller-coaster ride in Australia continued with a disappointing six-over 78 that included three double bogeys, three bogeys and three birdies. But that wasn't the focal point of the American's volatile day.
The two-time major winner was involved in an incident with an over zealous fan before he smashed the spectator's camera against a tree in a fit of rage.
Brad Clegg took a photo of Daly as he was about to play his approach out of the rough on the final hole. Daly then grabbed the camera and hurled it baseball-style at a tree, damaging it beyond use.
While conceding Daly's reaction was over the top, Golf Australia later said no action would be taken against him. Instead they pinned most of the blame on Clegg for bringing the camera onto the course.
"This gentleman had taken a lot of photos during the day and apparently was quite close to John Daly quite often," explained Trevor Herden, Australian Open director.
"He's not an accredited photographer and you're not allowed to have cameras or mobile phones on the golf course.
"John was a little annoyed (and) took the camera from the gentleman and threw it and it hit a tree and, yes, it got damaged. He (Clegg) understands that he was in the wrong by not having accreditation.
"He's at fault and, yes, John might have been at fault too. He was frustrated and it was an unfortunate incident."
Asked if Daly was remorseful, Herden replied: "John didn't have the best day out there but that's no excuse.
"Of course he's sorry. It's certainly not right but people react differently to different circumstances.
"It (the camera) hit a tree. He didn't throw it at the bloke or assault the guy or do anything like that.
Daly made a quick exit from the course and later issued a statement from his hotel: "I was looking to take a drop and the camera was six inches away from my face," he said.
"If I was 10-under par I would have felt the same. My eyes are still burning from the flash of the camera. I feel it was very rude to put a camera that close to anybody's face in any situation.
"The guy that had the camera had already taken a dozen shots at close range."
-additional reporting PA
Collated first round scores in the Australian PGA Tour Australian Open 2008, Royal Sydney Golf Club, Sydney, Australia
(Aus unless stated, par 72):
65Mathew Goggin, Ewan Porter, Stephen Dartnell
67Rodney Pampling, David Smail (Nzl), Mark Brown (USA)
68Danny Lee (Nzl), Troy Kennedy
69Craig Scott, Andrew Bonhomme, John Senden, Andre Stolz, Anthony Summers, Heath Reed, Peter Lonard
70Chris Gaunt, Tim Wood, Brent McCullough, Brendan Jones, Wayne Perske, Terry Pilkadaris, Kane Webber (USA), Stuart Bouvier, Rohan Blizard, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Rick Kulacz, Anthony Brown, Steven Conran, Peter Fowler, Tim Clark (Rsa)
71Rudi Bezuidenhout, Scott Strange, Marcus Cain, Simon Griffiths (Eng), Adam Crawford, Matthew Jones, Jarrod Moseley, Adam Bland, Scott Hend, Paul Goydos (USA), Robert Allenby, Richard Green, Jens Nilsson (Swe), Kurt Barnes, David Bransdon
72Leigh McKechnie, James H McLean (USA), Chris Downes, Ben Burge, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Jones (USA), Steven Bowditch, Stephen Allan, Brad Lamb, Michael Long (Nzl), Craig Spence, Bradley Hughes, Wade Ormsby, Ashley Hall, Jamie Arnold, Michael Sim, Greg Chalmers, Ryan Haller, Cameron Percy, Darren Clarke (NIrl), Peter Senior, Jason Norris, Tony Carolan, Alistair Presnell
73Mahal Pearce (Nzl), Darren Beck, Jared Consoli, Darron Stiles (USA), Andrew McKenzie (Eng), Josh Geary (Nzl), Nathan Green, Daniel Nisbet, Marc Leishman, Craig Parry, Brad Kennedy, Marcus Fraser, Peter O'Malley, Adam Blyth, Stuart Appleby
74Aron Price, Matthew Millar, Andrew Martin, James Nitties, Eddie Barr, Won Joon Lee, Tristan Lambert, Tom Prowse, Daniel Hyndman, Scott Draper (Rsa), Tim Stewart, Michael Foster, Richard Lee (Nzl), Scott Laycock, Aaron Townsend, Mitchell Brown, Kieran Pratt, Scott Arnold (Hkg), Michael McGrath, Matt Jager, David McKenzie, Jarrod Lyle, Clint Rice, Matthew Ecob
75Chris Campbell, Ki joon Song, Steve Alker (Nzl), Phil Tataurangi (Nzl), Alex Simpson, Michael Brennan, Andrew Dodt, Anders Kristiansen (Nor), Daniel Beckmann, Nick Flanagan, Brett Rumford, Ben Wharton, Dae-hyun Kim (Kor), Ryan Hammond, Paul Sheehan
76David Lutterus (Rsa), Andrew Tampion, Paul Gow, Richie Gallichan, John Onions, Jason Perry, Julian Reynolds, Andrew Tschudin, Stephen Leaney, Brett Rankin, Matthew Griffen, Leigh Deagan
77Manny Villegas (Col), Bret Guetz (USA), Maxwell Mccardle (Rsa), Grant Scott, Bradley Lles (Nzl), Grant Moorhead (Nzl), Shaun Harmer, Michael Curtain, Bronson LaCassie, Terry Price
78Ashley Umbers, John Daly (USA), Dale Marmion (Eng), Steven Hassett, Simon Nash, Kim Felton, David Diaz
79Raffael Toperoso, Scott Barr, Steven Jeffress
80Michael Wright
