Westwood, Tullo share first round Scottish Open lead

A bogey three holes from home cost Lee Westwood the outright lead at the Barclays Scottish Open after day one at Castle Stuart Golf Links. Westwood, starting from the tenth hole, took full advantage of benign early conditions to reach the turn in 32 – including an eagle at the par-5 18th – before chalking up another four gains on his homeward nine.

His sole blemish came at the 7th hole – his 16th hole, where he dropped his only shot of the day before he posted a 7-under par opener of 65.

Westwood can regain the world number one spot from Luke Donald with a win, and was collared for the lead by Chilean Mark Tullo as the Moray Firth venue saw some scintillating golf, and a clutch of low scores as the forecast wind and rain failed to materialise.

Tullo, who could qualify for next week’s Open Championship at Royal St Georges, equalled Westwood’s round of 65 despite racking up three bogeys. In Tullo’s first nine holes, he made par only once, but started out with four consecutive birdies before dropping a shot at the 5th. He birdied the next before back-to-back bogeys dropped him back.

On the back nine, however, the Chilean Challenge Tour graduate alternately traded birdies and pars to come home in 31.

The pair lead by one from Ryder Cup Swede Peter Hanson, in-form South African George Coetzee and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen; the trio carding 6-under 66s. 13 players are a further shot back on 5-under par following rounds of 67. The group includes defending champion Edoardo Molinari, world number one Luke Donald and winning Ryder Cup skipper Colin Montgomerie.

For Montgomerie, this is his last throw of the dice to qualify for the Open Championship, and like Tullo needs to finish inside the top-5 to extend a run of Open Championship appearances stretching back to 1989. He might have shared the lead, had he not bogeyed the 3rd and 9th holes.

Luke Donald meanwhile was slow to hit his stride and reached the turn in level-par before posting five birdies coming home for his 67.

Also on 67 was Scot Mark Warren who racked up a sequence of seven successive birdies – one off the European Tour record – and wipe away an opening hole triple-bogey.

A cluttered leaderboard sees 45 players within four of the lead after day one, with 11 players closing on 4-under 68, including Ernie Els; while former US Open champion and tipster pick Graeme McDowell is among a group of 16 to close on 3-under par 69.

Also in that group are Padraig Harington and Justin Rose, as well as Paul McGinley who was making his 500th European Tour start.

Of the other tipster picks, Scot Paul Lawrie carded a 1-under par 71, while Ross Fisher went round in level-par. Fisher had to battle back from a triple-bogey six at the par-3 8th hole with a trio of birdies on the homeward nine.

Welshman Phillip Price posted the day’s best shot by acing the par-3 11th – and he takes home 168 bottles of Laurent-Perrier Champagne; one bottle for each yard of the hole..

Take on Sam Torrance at Kingsbarns

Scotland holds a privileged position on the world of golf and boasts many of the games most historic and sought after treasures. Scotland was the birthplace of golf as we know it today and the diverse landscape has led to the creation of a collection of the finest golf courses in the world. Illustrious Open venues like the Old Course at St Andrews, Royal Troon, Muirfield, Carnoustie and Turnberry never fail to inspire and amaze. Read more

Monty finishes last in Open Qualifying event at Sunningdale

Colin Montgomerie’s run of 21 successive appearances in the British Open championship looks in jeopardy of making it to 22 after the big Scot finished last in his qualifying event at Sunningdale on Monday.

Montgomerie, who recently finished in the top-10 at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, struggled for form last week at The Celtic Manor and that bad run seemed to carry on into yesterday with Montgomerie carding a 36-hole total of 6-over par 145 to leave him well outside the 10 places up for grabs.

Montgomerie finished a full 18 shots behind winner Graeme Storm, who shot rounds of 65 and 62 on the Old and New courses respectively to finish three shots ahead of the Saab Wales Open winner Alex Noren.

Also booking their place for Sandwich next month were Scot Peter Whiteford, England’s Gary Boyd and 2002 Open runner-up Thomas Levet; the trio finishing a further shot behind.

The five remaining places went to English pair Kenneth Ferrie and Richard McEvoy, Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, Spaniard Alejandro Canizares and South African George Coetzee, who claimed the final spot through a five-man playoff. Coetzee finally booked his place with a 20-foot birdie putt on the sixth extra hole to see off Pablo Larrazabal for the final slot in the Open field.

Scot Marc Warren and Spain’s Ignacio Garrido were both disqualified after playing the wrong ball.

All is not lost for Montgomerie, however, and he could still yet qualify should he card a top-5 finish at either the French or Scottish Opens. Alternatively, he could qualify via one of the two spots available through a mini-money list on the European Tour that continuew with this week’s Italian Open.

Monty misses out on US Open slot

Colin Montgomerie will be at Congressional next month for the US Open – but not as a player. Instead the big Scot will be part of the Sky Sports commentary team.

The Scot, who captained Europe to Ryder Cup success last year at The Celtic Manor failed to qualify for the season’s second major at Walton Heath, despite carding his first top-10 finish in three years at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth over the weekend.

With 11 qualifying slots available at Walton Heath, the day promised a lot of drama, but play was set back by over three hours due to fog.

Amongst those to book their seats on the plane to Maryland were Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts who topped the field on 9-under par, one ahead of Irelands Shane Lowry. English trio Robert Rock, Richard Dinwiddie and David Howell also qualified, as did Scot Stephen Gallacher.

Maarten Lafeber, Thomas Levet, Marcel Siem and Alex Noren also qualified while Swede Johan Edfors secured the final place at Congressional with a play-off win over Andreas Harto.

Scot Richard Ramsay should also have been in the playoff after tying with the pair but he had already left the course to catch a flight to Belfast to attend fellow golfer Gareth Maybin’s wedding reception, wrongly believing the play-off wouldn’t take place due to bad light.

It did, however, and Ramsay couldn’t make it back to the course in time to take part. By the time he had returned to the Surrey venue, Edfors and Harto had already completed the play-off.

“It’s just been an horrific day – an awful, awful day,” said Ramsay. “As I left it was 5.30pm and guys were teeing off the first. I actually feel physically sick – I can’t believe they played when it was pitch dark.”

Ryder Cup star Ross Fisher was a notable name to miss out, but still has a chance to make the field. Fisher needs to reach the world’s top 50 by the end of next week – he is currently 52nd in the world.

Young Scot leads after Open de Espana first round

Scotland’s Scott Jamieson shot a first round 66 to take a one shot lead in the Open de Espana at Real Club de Golf El Prat, Barcelona.

Playing in only his 11th European Tour event, Jamieson’s round consisted of eight birdies but the player blotted his card with a pair of bogeys to close one shot ahead of India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, Frenchman Romain Wattel, England’s Steve Webster and local player Pablo Larrazabal.

Jamieson has already reached the top-20 in three of his past events on Tour and started well, making a birdie at the 1st hole, before dropping a shot on the 4th. Two more birdies saw the Scot turn in 34, and he made a further five birdies and one bogey on the homeward nine to come home in 32.

France’s Gregory Bourdet spearheaded a four-way tie for fourth place after a round of 4-under par 68. Bourdet, who recently finished runner-up in Malaysia, was joined by Ireland’s Peter Lawrie, England’s Anthony Wall and South African Thomas Aiken.

Danny Willet came out best of the tipster three-ball after day one; the Englishman finishing 2-under par and sharing 17th place, despite struggling to hold onto gains. Nicolas Colsaerts meanwhile finished level par, despite twice getting to 2-under par in his opening round, while George Coetzee struggled and eventually closed with a 4-over par 76 to leave his struggling to make the cut.

Ryder Cup skipper Colin Montgomerie was 3-under par with 3 holes left to play but double-bogeyed the par-4 16th hole. However, he birdied the next and closed his round with a par to finish 2-under par for the round.
Montgomerie’s successor as captain for the 2012 renewal at Medinah opened with a level-par round of 72.

Elliot Saltman, making his return to the Tour after a three-month ban for cheating, also shot an opening 72.

He said afterwards:

“I’m glad to be back as it’s been a long three months and it feels like I’ve never been away.”

“George O’Grady and David Garland have both spoken to me and that was nice of them. I thought it might have been a wee bit difficult but it’s like nothing happened.”

Defending champion Alvaro Quiros of Spain opened the defence of his title with a 2-over par 74.

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