Olazabal's off to a flyer
Jose Maria Olazabal made a brilliant start to the defence of his French Open title at Le Golf National this morning.
Olazabal played 36 holes in seven-under-par on the final day of last year’s rain-affected event in Lyon for a two-shot victory.
And the Spaniard must have experienced a case of deja vu when he teed off on an overcast morning punctuated with persistent drizzle.
The conditions did not prevent the 36-year-old double Masters champion from surging to the top of the leaderboard however, with a hat-trick of birdies.
Starting from the 10th, Olazabal opened with three pars before rolling in birdie putts on the 13th, 14th and 15th to move to three-under-par and into an early lead over Denmark’s Anders Hansen and Swedish pair Fredrik Jacobson and Magnus Persson Atlevi.
Scoring elsewhere was not so good however and another former Masters champion, Sandy Lyle, retired from the event after just six holes.
Lyle said he was in pain from new ‘orthotic’ inserts in his shoes designed to improve his posture, and was eight-over-par when he decided to call it a day.
‘‘My glasses were steamed up, I was eight over par and I was just a hindrance to my playing partners,’’ said the 44-year-old, who does not have a card on the US Tour and is only playing in Europe by being in the top 40 on the career money list.
