Andrew Coltart, the new Australian PGA champion, produced a first-round 65 at the Metropolitan club and, not unnaturally, departed from the course delighted. But the main reason for his being a happy man is not that he is only two behind Peter Lonard, who had a course-record 63, but that a baby in a push-chair, who came into his line of fire, escaped uninjured.

Coltart was playing the 10th when he found the rough with his drive. The ball finished in long, tangled grass, and his eight-iron second got caught up in it, the club face twisted and the ball flew into the spectators.

It hurtled, on the fly, into the push-chair, striking the inside of it just by the baby's upper arm. "A few inches the other way, and it could have been really serious," said Coltart.

"It's the best thing that's happened, or, I suppose, that didn't happen, all season. Nothing could have been worse than to hurt her.

"After I finished the hole I gave her the ball that nearly brained her, but I felt that somehow it wasn't appropriate. I felt I should be giving her something more substantial, like my clubs perhaps. But she wouldn't have had much use for them and I needed them at the time."

The punter who staked £250 on Darren Clarke before the off at odds of 25 to 1 undoubtedly thought he had made a wise investment - at the time. After five holes, though, when Clarke was four over par, he could have been forgiven if he had torn up the betting slip. But the Ulster-man played the remaining 13 holes in four under and his tournament is not over yet.

Lee Westwood's search for world ranking points continues apace, and an opening 68, the same score as the defending champion, Greg Norman, left him lurking nicely in joint eighth place. He feels that his game has improved substantially, not just this season but in the last couple of months.

"I've been having all kinds of experiences," he said, "and learning from them. The Ryder Cup was fantastic, then there was winning the Volvo Masters and the Visa event in Japan, and playing under pressure and in different conditions in different places all helps.

"I think that if 12 months ago my game was, say, six out of 10, then now it's 8 1/2 out of 10. Of course," he added, "you never actually get to 10. No one does. Once you get to nine you start going 9.01 and then 9.02 and so on, and before you know it, you've retired."

Lonard is a man who feels he laboured long, and mainly in vain, on the European tour. "The courses over there don't suit my game," he said yesterday. "The main thing I learned this season is that I'm going to have to find a way of putting on singly quick and extremely true greens."

They are often very firm as well, and although those at the Metropolitan had been softened by overnight rain, they were still so hard that a ball landing on them made a distinct "poinggg" rather than the "splattt" so common in Europe and America.

Restored to conditions he both recognised and appreciated, Lonard putted like a magician. No trick was too difficult and yesterday he had nine single putts, wielding a long putter as if it truly were a witch's broomstick.