IAN WOOSNAM hopes to take full advantage of the absence of Colin Montgomerie and strengthen his grip on the Volvo Ranking when the German Open begins in Stuttgart today.
The Welshman who went to the top of the merit list when he won the Volvo PGA title at Wentworth last month, is confident he can prevent the Scot becoming European number one for a fifth successive year, especially now that he believes he has found a cure for the back trouble that hampered his 1996 challenge.
For the last six weeks Woosnam has been wearing a copper bracelet on his right wrist of the type favoured by Seve Ballesteros. "They are supposed to be good for rheumatism and arthritis," he said "and since I have worn mine I have had only two twinges in my back, and they were after lifting my luggage.
Woosnam has had one before, "but it didn't work because I purchased it," he said. "You have to have one given to you, and I got mine handed to me by an assistant at my local nine hole course on Jersey."
Both Padraig Harrington and Philip Walton would welcome such a magical panacea the way they felt on the eve of the £700,000 tournament at the Schloss Nippenburg club. Harrington, who missed the cut at the Congressional Club, is still suffering from the viral infection that struck him there.
"I have also got jet lag, so I do not feel well at all, and I have lost a fair amount, of weight in the last week," he said after a lacklustre 73 in the pro-am.
Walton, despite two courses of antibiotics, is struggling to shake off viral bronchitis, and has also lost several pounds in the last three weeks. However there is little wrong with the state of his game at the moment judging by the 65 he shot at Sunningdale on Monday to finish joint first with Gary Emerson in the Brian Taylor Memorial pro-am.
Harrington's form has been patchy recently, for although he was fourth in the Benson and Hedges international, his best since then is a 26th place in the Compaq European Grand Prix, won by US Open runner up Colin Montgomerie.
Eamonn Darcy and Des Smyth, together with Raymond Burns and David Higgins, also compete for a top award of £116,000, but the man they all have to beat. Woosnam included, is local favourite Bernhard Langer.
Five times winner of his national Open the German is on the trail of a 10th win on home soil, having just got over the back trouble that struck him in Hamburg and also led to his early departure from the US Open.
"I retrospect I should not have gone there," he said, "but the doctors told me that my back spasm would clear up in five days. instead it took 10 and it wrecked my preparation."
Langer is now fully fit but will have to make do with long range coaching this week. His fairway aide Willi Hoffman is running a coaching school in Austria, so their daily consultations will be on the telephone.
