Philip Reid hears how a video nasty has given the two-time Masters champion a few new swing thoughts

This game of golf can be a fickle old business, as Jose Maria Olazabal could tell you. Since he returned to the European circuit after spending the early part of the season playing in America, the Spaniard has endured a miserable time of one missed cut after another. In fact, before teeing up at the TPC of Europe, he had failed to make the cut at the Spanish Open, the Italian Open and the British Masters.

"The last three weeks were awful," he stated.

His form of late has been so bad that Olazabal, a two-time Masters champion, has slipped to 157th in the world rankings. He was once as high as second, although that seems like an age ago (in 1991), and, as things stand, he will have to try to qualify for next month's US Open at Shinnecock Hills. When asked if he felt he deserved a special exemption, he replied: "You know, in a way, you have to deserve it. (But) I'm not going to beg for it.

"I would love to play, but it wouldn't be fair for all the other guys that are trying their hearts out to get in. The way I am playing at the moment, I haven't earned my spot. For me to get there, I am going to try and earn it."

Olazabal intends to attempt to qualify the week after the Memorial Tournament.

Yesterday, though, the 38-year-old gave a hint of the old days. In shooting a six-under-par 66 to lie just a shot adrift of the quartet of first round leaders, Olazabal rediscovered an element that has been missing from his game for far too long, and he put the transformation down to watching his swing on video.

"I saw it and I didn't like what I saw and made a decision to change a couple of things," he said.

So it was that Olazabal spent much of last week working on his swing.

"It wasn't just my driving, the driving was part of it, but the iron play too was really bad. When I saw the video tapes, the hands were really close to the shoulders and too low.

"There wasn't any width on the downswing, no room for the club to get to the ball and, then, sometimes when I try to get those hands a little higher, I get my clubface shut, especially with the irons, and keep pulling shots left all the time."

All of these problems, which have afflicted and tormented him for months, were finally deciphered with his own eyes.

"I figured it out from watching myself on the video tapes . . . you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what might be wrong with the swing, and most of the things were pretty obvious. I knew my swing was not good and that I had to change.

"Earlier in the season I experimented with my clubs, put more loft onto the driver and things like that . . . but that is not the solution. You have to take the bull by the horns and that is what I am doing by working on my swing."

The transformation from the past three weeks was, indeed, remarkable yesterday. Instead of looking to another missed cut, and another weekend without tournament golf, Olazabal finds himself in the hunt after a first round where he hit more fairways than not (eight of 14) and missed just two greens in regulation, lying third in that particular statistic.

His round comprised six birdies and not a single bogey, and provided renewed inspiration.

"The worst part of the long run of not playing well was not knowing what to do, not knowing how to approach the situation. Trying a lot of things, and not seeing any results. That's the tough part.

"But I love this game and I don't give up easily."