Golf: Strong winds play havoc with Kiwi open charge

11.00am

SANDWICH, England - One shot destroyed Michael Campbell's momentum on an opening day of golfing carnage at the British Open at Royal St George's here today.

Campbell and fellow New Zealander Craig Perks bemoaned the brutal winds after ending the day with seven-over-par rounds of 78 -- 10 shots adrift of surprise South African leader Hennie Otto who shot a three-under 68.

Ernie Els began his British Open golf title defence in disappointing style, struggling to a first-round 78 to finish 10 shots behind the leader.

The big South African bogeyed four of the first nine holes at Royal St George's and three more on the back nine, failing to muster a single birdie as he trailed in the wake of his compatriot Hennie Otto, the surprise pace-setter.

"Conditions were tough, I've played in conditions like that before but this golf course is really difficult," Els said.

"I had a lot of problems with my putts so I threw a lot of shots away on the greens early in the round."

Els, who has five victories this season including last week's Scottish Open, had problems with all aspects of his game, driving wildly off the tee and missing a succession of putts on the way to his highest round in 13 British Opens.

He did, however, sink a 12-foot putt for par on the 17th green and did not drop a shot over the tricky closing four holes to stay in contention to win his fourth major championship.

Els slumped to a 79 in the first round of this year's US Masters before recovering with a 66 on the way to finishing sixth. The South African knows he must now do something similar in Sandwich.

"If I want to get back into the tournament I need to do something pretty special," he said.

"Hopefully, we will get a break in the weather tomorrow morning and I'll try to get my putting touch back.

"If I can finish this event in even par that will be a good effort I guess."

Campbell featured on the early leaderboards when he brilliantly eagled the 455m par-five second hole with a 30-foot putt, and then birdied the par-four third.

But after bogeys at the next two holes, it was the par-four eighth that hurt Campbell.

A simple 50-yard pitch shot was caught by a sudden wind change and dramatically pulled up short of the green.

Campbell looked up in disbelief, then proceeded to fluff his next shot that ran right through the green from where he eventually recorded a double bogey six.

Bogeys followed at the 10th, 11th, 13th and 16th holes before he took a second double bogey at the 17th.

"It was a great start... and it was nice, for a while, to see my name up on the leader board," Campbell said.

"I got a tough break at the eighth and could not have anticipated such a dramatic wind change.

"It just seemed to throw me and before I knew I am walking away with a double bogey and back to one-over-par.

"But I am pleased with the way I hung in there in the conditions. You could not explain to people who were watching because it was so hard.

"There was numerous holes out there where the ball was oscillating on the greens. I had to back away about two or three times on the ninth.

"The guys who teed off in the afternoon, half of the draw got the tougher conditions but a good round tomorrow should get me through the cut."

A third Kiwi at the open, David Smail was only marginally better than Campbell and Perks, signing for a six-over 77.

Breaking the halfway cut for Campbell is now the biggest mental obstacle facing the nine-times British Open veteran.

Of the 22 majors Campbell contested, he managed to make the cut just seven times. The last time was in August last year when he eventually finished 23rd in the US PGA Championship.

Perks completed his round five groups behind Campbell and managed just one birdie, at the fourth, in his round of 78.

And like Campbell, a double bogey -- this time at the ninth -- stood out like a beacon on his score card.

"The course today played so much differently to the practice rounds," said Perks.

"To get the ball on the fairway with basically no wind is a task but trying to achieve that in a cross wind is a lot tougher assignment.

"I also found it very difficult putting in the strong winds and overall I am a little disappointed with the way I played but I know it was going to be hard day."

Smail's second British Open was just a little brighter than Campbell's and Perks despite the Japan-based player failing to record a birdie.

Smail started and ended with a bogey in a round of 77.

- NZPA



British open first round scores



Collated completed first round scores from the 132nd British Open golf championship at the par-71, 7106-yard (6498m), Royal St George course today (British unless stated, a-denotes amateur):

68 - Hennie Otto (South Africa)

69 - Davis Love III (US), Greg Norman (Australia)

70 - SK Ho (South Korea), Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden)

71 - Fred Couples (US), Gary Evans, Mathias Gronberg (Sweden), Charles Howell III (US), Thomas Levet (France), Scott McCarron (US), Tom Watson (US)

72 - Ben Curtis (US), Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), John Rollins (US), Nobuhitu Sato (Japan), Katsuyoshi Tomori (Japan)

73 - Robert Allenby (Australia), Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), Steve Flesch (US), Mark Foster, Sergio Garcia (Spain), Retief Goosen (South Africa), Skip Kendall (US), Peter Lonard (Australia), Sandy Lyle, David Lynn, Gary Murphy (Ireland), Mark O'Meara (US), Craig Parry (Australia), Marco Ruiz (Paraguay), Tiger Woods (US), Ian Woosnam

74 - Chad Campbell (US), Kenneth Ferrie, Alastair Forsyth, Jim Furyk (US), Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark), Stephen Leaney (Australia), Justin Leonard (US), Len Mattiace (US), Phil Mickelson (US), Jarrod Moseley (Australia), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Corey Pavin (US), Kenny Perry (US), Nick Price (Zimbabwe), Phillip Price, Andrew Raitt, Chris Smith (US), Mike Weir (Canada), a-Gary Wolstenholme

75 - Stuart Appleby (Australia), Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Stewart Cink (US), Darren Clarke, John Daly (US), Fred Funk (US), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Jonathan Kaye (US), Eduardo Romero (Argentina), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Anthony Wall

76 - Rich Beem (US), Markus Brier (Austria), Luke Donald, Nick Faldo, Niclas Fasth (Sweden), Todd Hamilton (US), Anders Hansen (Denmark), Dudley Hart (US), Lee Janzen (US), Shingo Katayama (Japan), Bernhard Langer (Germany), Cameron Percy (Australia), Hal Sutton (US), Duffy Waldorf (US), Lee Westwood

77 - Steven Bowditch (Australia), Tom Byrum (US), KJ Choi (South Korea), Jose Coceres (Argentina), Brian Davis, Joe Durant (US), Gary Emerson, Bob Estes (US), Brad Faxon (US), Peter Fowler (Australia), Pierre Fulke (Sweden), David Howell, Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Raphael Jacquelin (France), Tom Lehman (US), Paul McGinley (Ireland), Mark Roe, DAVID SMAIL (New Zealand), Christopher Smith

78 - Mark Calcavecchia (US), MICHAEL CAMPBELL (New Zealand), Ben Crane (US), Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands), Ernie Els (South Africa), JL Lewis (US), Peter O'Malley (Australia), CRAIG PERKS (New Zealand), Ian Poulter, Chris Riley (US), Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), Jeff Sluman (US), Steen Tinning (Denmark), Scott Verplank (US)

79 - a-Ricky Barnes (US), Chris DiMarco (US), Andrew George, Mark McNulty (Zimbabwe), Marten Olander (Sweden), Greg Owen, Justin Rose, Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Hideto Tanihara (Japan), Paul Wesselingh

80 - Bradley Dredge, Ignacio Garrido (Spain), Jay Haas (US), Soren Hansen (Denmark), Euan Little, Jyoti Randhawa (India), Mark Smith, David Toms (US)

81 - Cliff Kresge (US), Paul Lawrie, Hirofumi Miyase (Japan), Iain Pyman

82 - a-Scott Godfrey, Malcolm Mackenzie, Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), Nick O'Hern (Australia), Adam Scott (Australia), Toru Taniguchi (Japan), Simon Wakefield

83 - David Duval (US), Philip Golding, Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Noboru Sugai (Japan)

85 - Robert Coles

86 - Steve Elkington (Australia)

- - - -

Play suspended because of bad light with six players still to complete their rounds:

Andrew Coltart +1 after 17 holes

Matthew Goggin (Australia) +3 17

Adam Mednick (Sweden) +4 17

Adam Le Vesconte (Australia) +10 17

Anthony Sproston +11 17

Charles Challen +14 17

- - - -
Withdrew: Colin Montgomerie, Paul Azinger (US), Jerry Kelly (US)