Delayed by fog, soaked by rain, buzzed by swarms of wasps and finally plunged into darkness with the first round unfinished, Scotland’s summer of golf continued in glorious fashion at Gleneagles.
Boils and rats were just about the only biblical-style plagues not to afflict the opening day of the Johnnie Walker Championship, and although an errant mole scuttling across a green did stop play at one point, he was mercifully operating solo.
It has not reached the levels of the Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in July yet, but the appalling weather looks like being the defining mark for this golfing year, and the belated arrival of the predatory insects added to the general gloom.
England’s Mark Foster bravely ignored one of them landing on his arm to hole one of his birdie putts in the six-under 66 that led the first round, which started two hours and 40 minutes behind schedule due to the fog.
Just over a quarter of the field had still to finish when time was called at 8.20 pm, leaving Spain’s Ignacio Garrido sharing second with Tona Goya of Argentina.
The best of the 25 Scots in the field finished 18 holes are, somewhat surprisingly, former Johnnie Walker champion Marc Warren and Alastair Forsyth, both of whom lost their tour rights last year but both had two-under 70s.
Still out on the course, Richie Ramsay is two-under and amateur James Byrne is promisingly three-under, but with some of the tougher holes still to play.
Foster is the refreshingly honest man from the same Worksop club that produced Lee Westwood and although he had to undergo three separate warm-ups because of false alarms on the fog clearing, shot a superb 66 despite being continually distracted by the buzzing irritants.
“I’d say on every hole two or all three of us were backing off a shot,” he said. “Eventually on 12 I went through with a birdie putt with a wasp landed on me.
“I figured it’s going to move when I hit the ball, I felt in a good place, so I went through with it and made the putt.”
Foster was in the same Walker Cup-winning team as Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher in 1995 “Sixteen years ago, that was sobering discussion we had this week” and led in three successive tournaments this year, the BMW International, The French Open and the Scottish Open, although he didn’t win any of them.
He said: “That was pleasing time for me, because Sergio (Garcia) went crazy in Germany and Thomas (Levet) played pretty special in France, and Luke (Donald) was great in the Scottish, and I took great belief in myself knowing I can do it week to week, which I’d never really done before.
“The biggest disappointment was playing well three weeks in a row didn’t get me in the Open. I’ve won before so I don’t question my ability to do it, and I’ve never taken it for granted. There have been times when I’ve given tournaments away but I think I’m a better person and player for that.”
Continued with scores…
Garrido, a former PGA champion and Ryder Cup player, has been battling injury problems with back and neck all season but has seen new physios and even in the chill of a Scottish summer morning got loose enough for a 67.
“The first part of the year has been difficult but happily that’s over now,” he said. “The course is playing long with all of the rain so the key is to stay out of trouble, and we got no wind, one of the better days you would have in Scotland.”
Such have expectations of half-decent weather fallen for visitors to this country, it seems. Goya, a 23-year-old protege of fellow Cordoban Angel Cabrera, shot his 67 in the gloaming but with only one bogey and none at all on the tough front nine.
His best performance thus far in the season was ninth place last week in the Czech Open, and he carried that form into Gleneagles.
Three players share third on four-under, and perhaps most ominously and fully 20 minutes after the siren went to end play, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn birdied the 18th to finish on that mark, clearly the class of those near the top of leaderboard.
Further fog permitting, play will resume at 7.30am with, it’s hoped, no more than a half-hour delay to getting the second round under way and back on schedule.
Latest first round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72). Note Play suspended for the day due to bad light. First round will resume at 7.30am today. Still 51 players on the course:66Mark Foster67Tano Goya (Arg), Ignacio Garrido (Spa)68Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Peter Lawrie69Richard Bland, John Parry, Chris Wood, Robert Coles, Richard McEvoy, Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Thomas Norret (Den), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita)70Francesco Molinari (Ita), Oliver Wilson, Simon Dyson, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Marc Warren, Alastair Forsyth, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Simon Thornton, Miles Tunnicliff, Pablo Martin (Spa), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Matthew Nixon, Seve Benson, Gareth Wright, Romain Wattel (Fra), Jamie Donaldson, Alexandre Kaleka (Fra)71Christian Cevaer (Fra), Gary Orr, Steve Webster, Anders Hansen (Den), Ross Fisher, Soren Hansen (Den), Callum Macaulay, Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Christopher Doak, Bradley Dredge72Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Jason McCreadie, Oliver Fisher, Jordi Garcia (Spa), Robert Rock, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Ariel Canete (Arg), Adrian Otaegui (Spa)73Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Johan Edfors (Swe), Simon Khan, Lloyd Saltman, Anthony Kang (USA), Marco Ruiz (Par), Elliot Saltman, Andreas Harto (Den), Pedro Oriol (Spa), Ross McGowan74Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe), Alvaro Velasco (Spa), David Patrick, Robert Dinwiddie, Matthew Zions (Aus), Rhys Davies, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg), Julio Zapata (Arg), Lee Slattery, Stephen Gallacher, Stephen Dodd, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Tim Sluiter (Ned), Keith Horne (Rsa), Paul McGinley, Edoardo Molinari (Ita)75Liam Bond, Mark Tullo (Chi), David Howell, Greig Hutcheon, David Lynn, Mark Brown (Nzl), Richard Finch, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Gregory Havret (Fra)76George Murray, Steve Lewton, Marcus Both (Aus), Peter Whiteford, Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Marcel Siem (Ger), Nick Dougherty, Steven O’Hara, Simon Wakefield, Graeme Storm77Scott Henderson, Danny Willett, George Coetzee (Rsa)78Shaun Norris (Rsa)80Ian Redford, James White.