GOLF: Tis true, so. The golfing gods can inflict a variety of spells, of good and evil, on those who use clubs created on computer screens and crafted on hi-tech factory floors to claim their living.
On a day that began with a shroud of fog enveloping the Majlis course, delaying play for two and a half hours, it finished in the twilight with only half the field managing to complete the first round, and Welshman Bradley Dredge setting a strong pace.
Of the golf that was played, though, some was magical and some was downright weird. And if the most improbable sight of all was the world's number one Tiger Woods pushing his drive on the 10th hole so far right that the ball was never found again, only to pull his provisional drive into a waste bunker on the way to running up a double-bogey seven, there were many other incidents in the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic to make us all wonder about the vagaries of the game.
While Dredge, whose only European Tour win came in the Madeira Island Open last year, fired an error-free eight-under-par 64 to establish a three-stroke lead over his nearest pursuer, David Howell of England, there was to be a less straightforward route for many others, including his compatriot Phillip Price, the Ryder Cup player.
On the third hole, Price rolled in a 30-footer for eagle, only to watch in horror as the ball finally disappeared from view . . . his caddy, Peter Futcher, was so busy pacing out the intended hole position for the second round that he had neglected to remove the flag from the hole. It meant that Price incurred a two-shot penalty, making a par instead of an eagle. "We weren't paying proper attention," remarked Price later, having completed 14 holes in two under. But there is no danger of his caddy getting the sack. "He's alright, it was my fault as well," he added.
Elsewhere, there were other feats that combined skill with blind luck. Richard Green holed out his sand-wedge approach over water to the 18th for an eagle, and no two-shot penalty, while Colin Montgomerie was the odd man out in his threeball at the eighth where Robert Jan Derksen first holed his pitch for birdie, only for Padraig Harrington to follow him in by holing his bunker shot.
All in all, it was a satisfactory day for Harrington, who was three under par for the 14 holes he completed before the siren sounded announcing the end of play.
"I wished I could have kept on going," admitted Harrington, who played above and beyond his pre-tournament expectations. He hit the ball off the tee quite beautifully - "I hit it better than ever," he conceded - and only had a couple of poor iron shots.
However, any problems the Dubliner did have were on the greens, where he suffered two three-putts, on the sixth and the 10th. "I'm just not flowing (with my putting). I could feel it before I even hit the putts.
"I'm not confident with the line, not confident with the reading, just not settling into my putts," he said. "My confidence is not high, because I am still carrying some shots in from last week that I haven't got rid of yet." Still, Harrington, now 11th in the world rankings and still the leading European player, was near-faultless with his driving. "To be honest, I don't think I could have put it in a better position off the tee. It just wouldn't be possible. That's as good as I have ever hit it," he insisted.
So it was that after play was halted, Harrington retreated to the putting green - using the light emitted from the giant television screen - to attempt to get some feel. Even there, his rhythm was not what it should have been; if for rather different and playful reasons as Lauren, the 18-month-old daughter of Greg Owen, ran onto the green to scoop up the balls.
If Harrington's strong point was his driving, it was Woods's weakness. On Wednesday, Woods made a secret visit to a US naval carrier in the Gulf where he conducted a clinic for the 6,000 personnel stationed on the ship - "one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life," claimed Woods afterwards - but the inspiration didn't extend to the course in yesterday's first round where his problems with the driver on the 10th led to a double-bogey seven.
By the time he had completed his 13 holes, before calling it a day in the fading light, Woods was stuck on level par. Ernie Els had a marginally better time of it, opening with a two-under-par 70. "I made some mistakes, (had) a little bit of rust especially with my short game," he explained, adding: "But I can build on that."
For Dredge, though, there were only good times, his round containing six birdies and an eagle. A notoriously late-starter to the tour because of his dislike of travelling to the Far East and Australia, Dredge had only played two events before making the trip to Dubai.
Both were in South Africa, where he missed the cut in the South African Open and then shot a second round 63 to leap into contention in the Championship only to follow up with a 76 and eventually finish tied-28th. In all, his efforts had him placed only a lowly 136th in the money list before coming to Dubai.
That could change quite dramatically, however. The highlight of yesterday's round was his eagle on the 18th, where he hit a three-wood approach of 230 yards into the wind to 30 feet and sank the putt. "I am a goal setter and always set them very high . . . and I think the main thing I want to achieve is to play in the Ryder Cup," he insisted. For him to do that, he needs to start finishing the job in tournaments.
Dubai Desert Classic: Completed first-round scores
(Irish (bold) and British unless stated, par 72)
(x) denotes amateurs
8 under
64 - Bradley Dredge.
5 under
67 - David Howell.
4 under
68 - Richard Green (Aus).
3 under
69 - Peter Lawrie, Pierre Fulke (Swe), Gary Orr, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai), Peter Baker, Johan Edfors (Swe), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Soren Hansen (Den), Simon Khan.
2 under
70 - Peter Hedblom (Swe), Alastair Forsyth, Lee Westwood, Ernie Els (Rsa), Martin Lemesurier, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Martin Maritz (Rsa), Raymond Russell, Christian Cevaer (Fra), Steve Webster .
1 under
71 - Robert Karlsson (Swe), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), John Bickerton, Miles Tunnicliff, Peter Hanson (Swe).
Level
72 - Thomas Levet (Fra), Darren Clarke, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Sandy Lyle, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Andrew Coltart, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Stephen Gallacher, Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Markus Brier (Aut), Iain Pyman.
1 over
73 - James Kingston (Rsa), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Nick Faldo, Thomas Bjorn (Den), Ian Poulter, Jarrod Moseley (Aus), Peter Fowler (Aus), Anthony Wall.
2 over
74 - Graeme McDowell, Mark Foster, David Lynn, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Stuart Little, Nick Dougherty, Thaworn Wiratchant (Thai), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Gary Birch.
3 over
75 - Matthew Cort, Diego Borrego (Spa), Santiago Luna (Spa), Jonathan Lomas, Jamie Elson, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor).
4 over
76 - Rolf Muntz (Ned), Stephen Dodd, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Klas Eriksson (Swe), Richard McEvoy .
5 over
77 - Andrew Oldcorn, Shingo Katayama (Jpn), Nobuhito Sato (Jpn) .
6 over
78 - Jamie Donaldson, Andrew Whitelaw, David Park, Kiyoshi Murota (Jpn) .
8 over
80 - (x) Butch Kamps (USA).
Retired - Hennie Otto (Rsa).
A total of 78 players have yet to complete the first round.
LEADERBOARD
8 under - B Dredge (after 18 holes)
5 under - D Howell (18)
4 under - R Green (Aus) (18); S Drummond (11)
3 under - T Jaidee (Tha) (18); P Lawrie (18); G Orr (18); P Fulke (Swe) (18); P Baker (18); J Edfors (Swe) (18); S Khan (18); S Hansen (Den) (18); M Fraser (Aus) (18); P Harrington (14); P Broadhurst (14); S Dyson (11); C Schwartzel (Rsa) (9); G Havret (Fra) (9).
2 under - E Els (Rsa) (18); Westwood (18)
Level - T Woods (USA) (12); C Montgomerie (14); D Clarke (18).
