LEE WESTWOOD is guaranteed a place in Europe's 2008 Ryder Cup squad but his chances of receiving a good luck note from the greens' committee at Gleneagles took a serious dent last night after he suggested his kids could make a better job of designing some of the holes on the course hosting this week's Johnnie Walker Championship.
The Scottish venue is also due to stage the Ryder Cup in 2014, six years hence and just about enough time to fix up the course, if the Englishman is to be believed. "You could rip them up and replace them," he said when asked what could be done to improve the greens.
"Hopefully, they won't use the designer who had two goes at doing the seventh because if you have two goes to get it to that stage . . . well, my kids could do better in one afternoon."
Do not expect that one to appear in the next marketing brochure for this exclusive resort. Nor this: "The people I feel sorry for are those who are trying to get into the Ryder Cup.
"This is a big week for them. They must be feeling the pressure and it can't help standing over a three-footer not knowing if the putt is going to run straight."
Alas for fans of Gleneagles, and there were still a few to be found on the range yesterday, his comments could not be dismissed as the words of a man embittered after failing to break 80.
The Englishman did three-putt from 18 inches on the fifth but, even so, he still shot a one-under 72.
That was good enough for a tie for 14th place, four shots behind the first-round leader Gregory Havret of France, whose 68 left him with a two-shot advantage over a group of players that included Paul Broadhurst, Gary Orr and Christian Cevaer.
It would be a harsh judge indeed who would dismiss any of the above but those following the intrigue surrounding Nick Faldo's two captain's picks for Sunday will have been disappointed at the leaderboard lacking the names of those who have been at the centre of the speculation.
No Nick Dougherty (73), no Oliver Wilson (76) and no Martin Kaymer (76).
Of those, only Wilson occupies one of the 10 automatic spots. "Shooting three-over isn't going to do a lot for my chances but I don't think I have played myself out of it either. I could have done but managed to scramble and keep things together," he said. "The greens are not overly smooth, but I felt I was a little bit unlucky - every time I hit it in the rough I got a bad lie."
Of those who may (or may not) make the team to face the US in Kentucky next month via a captain's pick Ireland's Darren Clarke had the best day, shooting a one-under 72.
That represented a fair effort, especially as he played in the afternoon when the breeze was up and the greens were bumpier than an Irish back road, but the Ulsterman might have expected better at three-under with four holes to play.
Another who has found himself in the midst of the Ryder Cup gossip this week has been Colin Montgomerie, although this week the Scotsman glories under the title tournament chairman and, as such, was required to have an opinion on Westwood's opinion. "I have a couple of important rounds left to play this week so let's just leave the greens as they are," he said. Spoken like a true tournament chairman.
As for his one-over round of 74, he sounded more optimistic than he really ought to be. "I'm not out of the tournament by any means," he said. He was right about that, although given the widely-held view that Faldo is not inclined to hand him one of the two coveted spots under any circumstances, he might as well be.
For Colin Montgomerie and Paul McGinley, meanwhile, the task is to try to impress Faldo enough to hand them one of his two wild cards.
Some suspect that the reason Paul Casey and Ian Poulter have stayed in the States is that they are the favoured pair, but that is out of the control of the three home-based stars.
Montgomerie shot 74 while McGinley could do no better than 76. Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy both shot 75 with Rory McIlroy on 76 abd Gary McGrane with work to do after a 78.
Guardian Service
GOLF SCORES: FIRST ROUND
JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP(at Gleneagles, Scotland)
First round(Irish in bold, British unless stated, par 73):
68- G Havret (Fra)
70- C Cevaer (Fra), R Rock, G Orr, P Broadhurst
71- M Wiegele (Aut), J Lima (Por), A Wall, S Hansen (Den), B Teilleria (Fra), G Bourdy (Fra), B Dredge
72- J Abbate (Arg), P Sjoland (Swe), R Fisher, Darren Clarke, G Paddison (Nzl), LS James, J Lomas, E Canonica (Ita), L Westwood
73- F Molinari (Ita), M Campbell (Nzl), P Whiteford, P Waring, N Dougherty, P Edberg (Swe), S Dyson, D Lynn, T Jaidee (Tha), R Jacquelin (Fra), J Edfors (Swe), J Rose, M Warren, A Canete (Arg), M Foster 74- A Velasco (Spa), C Montgomerie, M Millar (Aus), M Siem (Ger), G Storm, A Quiros (Spa), P Hanson (Swe), S Bebb, I Garrido (Spa), S Osborne, J Randhawa (Ind) 75- L Claverie (Spa), Peter Lawrie(Irl), D Orr, J Lara (Spa), M Carlsson (Swe), S Gray, P McKechnie, P Linhart (Spa), J Donaldson, A Canizares (Spa), S Luna (Spa), G Fdez-Castano (Spa), P Fowler (Aus), M Fraser (Aus), G Houston, C Wood, A Haig (Rsa), F Delamontagne (Fra), P Baker, D Howell, S Drummond, L Oosthuizen (Rsa), S Manley, S Gallacher, Gary Murphy(Irl), 76- S Kjeldsen (Den), O Wilson, R Gonzalez (Arg), M Kaymer (Ger), R Echenique (Arg), O Fisher, P Larrazabal (Spa), Rory McIlroy(NIrl), I Pyman, S Little, S Alker (Nzl), G Hutcheon, M Lafeber (Ned), R Arnott, D Fichardt (Rsa), L Saltman, S Walker, P Lawrie, Paul McGinley(Irl), B Lane, P Golding 77- M Loftus, M Erlandsson (Swe), B Barham, P Price, A Garcia-Heredia (Spa), J Zapata (Arg), D Vancsik (Arg), L Slattery, D Drysdale, P Martin (Spa), T Levet (Fra) 78- Damien McGrane(Irl), D Griffiths, S Mcewan, P Hedblom (Swe), M Vibe-Hastrup (Den), S Wakefield, M Jonzon (Swe), C Nirat (Tha), H Otto (Rsa), S Webster, Graeme McDowell(NIrl), J Larsen (Nor), C Rodiles (Spa), M Brown (USA), T Whitehouse, P Archer, J Lucquin (Fra), P O'Malley (Aus) 79- J Backstrom (Swe), B Saltus (USA), M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), H Nystrom (Swe), J Luiten (Ned), S Khan, S Cairns, D Dixon, A Forsyth, F Zanotti (Par), F Praegant (Aut) 80- J Gonnet (Fra), S Kapur (Ind), J McCreadie, P Johansson (Swe), K Sullivan, D Willett, C Suneson (Spa), S Struver (Ger), T Aiken (Rsa), E Molinari (Ita) 81- M Lundberg (Swe), F Andersson Hed (Swe), M Tunnicliff 82- P Terreni (Ita), R Dinwiddie, K Mcnicoll, A McLardy (Rsa), M Mamat (Sin) 83- C Lee, M Ilonen (Fin), R Finch, J Kamte (Rsa).
ECCO TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP(Kokkedal Golfklub, Denmark)
First round:
66- F Henge (Swe),
67- R Kakko (Fin), A Ahokas (Fin),
68- J Makitalo (Fin), E Johansen (Nor), J Mellor (Eng),
69- A Rocha (Bra), R Santos (Por), R De Sousa (Sui), R McEvoy (Eng), G Adell (Swe), R Steiner (Aut),
70- D Carter (Eng), E Goya (Arg), A Hansen (Den), M Korhonen (Fin), L Bond (Wal), M Rodriguez (Arg), S OHara (Sco), J Heath (Eng), M Morris (Eng), S Jeppesen (Swe), M Persson (Swe),
71- L Jensen (Den), K Eriksson (Swe), G Maybin(Nir), M Olsen (Den), A Tampion (Aus), T Cruz (Por), L Gagli (Ita), A Bossert (Sui), T Edlund (Swe), E Rush (Eng), M Dieu (Fra), J Martikainen (Fin), G Rojas (Arg), T Karjalainen (Fin), A Bernadet (Fra), M Madsen (am) (Den), 72- B Evans (Eng), C Moriarty(Irl), M Soffietti (Ita), W Besseling (Ned), M Haastrup (Den), I Garbutt (Eng), T Remkes (Ned), L Dodd (Eng), O Whiteley (Eng), M Pilkington (Wal), K Jorgensen (Den), J Haeggman (Swe), G Clark (Eng), D Wardrop (Eng), G Canizares (Esp), T Milford (Eng), D Ulrich (Sui), S Davis (Eng), A Andersson (Swe), S Browne(Irl), R Karlberg (Swe), S Webster (Eng), A Marshall (Eng), J Quesne (Fra), A Bruschi (Ita), C Del Moral (Esp), A McArthur (Sco), M Tullo (Chi), T Norret (Den), R Nielsen (am) (Den), 73- A Kali (Den), P Ellebye (Den), P Drost (Den), R Bland (Eng), R Cabrera Bello (Esp), S Henderson (Sco), G Clark (Eng), N Bruzelius (Swe), M Smith (Eng), P Kaensche (Nor), T Tuovinen (Fin), O Henningsson (Swe), M Hoey(Nir), W Schauman (Swe), E Ramsay (Sco), O David (Fra), C Nilsson (Swe), B Wiesberger (Aut), A Högberg (Swe), R Coles (Eng), D Higgins(Irl), R Ramsay (Sco), A Salto (Esp). Other Irish: 77- P O'Keeffe (Irl).
