Duo consolidate stunning starts
Gary Evans and Ernie Els today made the most of their stunning starts to the 133rd British Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Evans, who missed out on a play-off for the 2002 Open at Muirfield by a shot after losing a ball on the 17th hole of the final round, holed his second shot to the 560-yard par five fourth for an albatross on his way to a 68.
And pre-tournament favourite Els then fired a hole-in-one at the eighth, the famous Postage Stamp, to jump into a share of the lead.
Evans holed out with a five-iron from 226 yards for the first albatross since Greg Owen on the 11th in the third round at Lytham in 2001, while Els only needed a wedge on the 123-yard eighth, the shortest hole on the British Open rota.
That catapulted the world number two into a share of the lead and another birdie on the 11th kept him at the head of affairs on four under par alongside American Skip Kendall and Korea’s KJ Choi.
Evans, in the first match out at 6.30am this morning, set the clubhouse target on three under as the early starters made the most of the unusually calm conditions.
“I hit it perfectly to the middle of the green, turned round to put the club in the bag and next thing I knew there were arms up in the air and everyone was going crazy,” Evans said of his albatross.
Local favourite Colin Montgomerie, a member of the course where his father James was secretary until 1997, was also three under par after eight holes alongside former USPGA champion Rich Beem.
There was still danger to be avoided however.
Sixty-one-year-old Tom Weiskopf, winner here in 1973, took four shots to escape from a greenside bunker to run up a quadruple bogey eight on the first.
And former champion David Duval was already on his way home, the 2001 winner pulling out before the start of his round, citing a sprained back muscle. His place was taken by fifth reserve David Griffiths from Hertfordshire.
Els had got off to a quiet start with just one birdie in seven holes, the South African two-putting the fourth for a birdie but missing from four feet on the 601-yard sixth.
That was soon forgotten, however, when the 34-year-old, who would overtake Tiger Woods as world number one if he won a second British Open title and the American finished lower than 17th, saw his tee-shot on the eighth spin back into the hole, matching 71-year-old Gene Sarazen’s feat in the 1973 Open here.
As expected, the front nine was yielding plenty of birdies, England’s Paul Casey lying two under par at the turn despite missing from three feet on the fifth, and 1997 champion Justin Leonard, playing with Els, on the same mark.
Montgomerie holed from 18ft on the second, from half that distance on the fifth and from just three feet on the sixth for his three birdies, and would have shared the lead but for missing from 10 feet on the eighth.
Meanwhile, Woods is among the later starters alongside Lee Westwood and Greg Norman.
| Related Stories: |
|
