Pablo Larrazábal leaves it late at Valderrama
With fewer than 20 players coming home below par at the first round of the Andalucia Valderrama Masters, Pablo Larrazábal grabbed the clubhouse lead late on in Spain this afternoon.
Larrazábal had picked up just three birdies across the first 15 holes, a score that was good enough to see him sharing the lead, until the 27-year-old added another couple of birdies on the 16th and 17th to forge ahead of the field. Larrazábal finished five-under-par 66 at the demanding Valderrama course, a score that's unlikely to be beaten with even prospective world No. 1 Martin Kaymer struggling earlier today.
Graeme McDowell, who could still pip Kaymer to the Race to Dubai, is in second place on three-under-par. The 31-year old from Northern Ireland carded just three birdies, but with no errors McDowell did enough to challenge, and is just two shots off the pace.
Another Ulsterman, Gareth Maybin, is tied for third place along with India's Shiv Kapur, Ireland's Damien McGrane and Argentina's Rafa Echenique, each man on two-under, while McDowell's Ryder Cup teammate Francesco Molinari is tied for seventh place on one-under, along with Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jiménez amongst others. Molinari had looked like mounting a challenge for the lead, but at three-under the Italian double bogeyed the 15th.
As for Garcia, he was back in action for the second week in a row after missing the cut in Valencia last week. Garcia's mixed bag of four bogeys and five birdies might not sound impressive, but that score of one-under is enough to see the 30-year-old tied for 7th place. The troubled Spaniard is returning after taking a couple of months out, and hopefully Garcia can build on his early prominence to silence the naysayers this weekend.
Another Celtic Manor veteran had a similarly disappointing finish, Ross Fisher finishing on level par for the tournament after double-bogeying the 18th.
Another of Spain's favourite golfers continued in his bid to resume a formerly successful career today, José María Olazábal ending the afternoon two-over-par. Olazábal is making only his third start of the year, his struggle with arthritis rendering the player incapable of participating for much of this year.
Nonetheless, having missed the cut at the French Open and being disqualified from last week's Castelló Masters, Ollie shouldn't be too disheartened with a round that saw five bogeys but also some mild cause for optimism with three birdies.
And what of Germany's Kaymer? The 25-year-old has been in superb form since August when he won the PGA Championship, following that victory up with another two European tour wins - that's three on the bounce - and a role in Europe's Ryder Cup victory.
Kaymer also has a considerable incentive to perform well here, in that he will dislodge Tiger Woods from the world No. 1 spot if he can win or finish as runner up. But the current world No. 3 was off to a slow start this afternoon, coming home 1-over-par 72 after shooting three birdies and four bogeys.
Not the performance that Kaymer must have been hoping for, but by no means disastrous at this stage. In any case, Kaymer's underwhelming score was small fry compared to that carded by a sheepish Edoardo Molinari.
The elder of the Italian brothers managed three birdies and eight bogeys this afternoon, finishing his round five-over-par and in a tie for 82nd place on the leaderboard - and making for a brother grim, we'll warrant.
No fairy tale ending for Molinari, then - but Kaymer could still deliver this weekend, despite today's setback. Lee Westwood will be watching the events of the next few days with more interest than usual.
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