Unbeaten as Ryder Cup partners last year and inseparable on tour for years, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke went their separate ways in the first round of the Austrian Open today.
While Westwood was "fairly irritated" with a five-under-par 66 which threatened to be so much better, Clarke's two over par 73 left him facing an uphill struggle to avoid missing a sixth halfway cut in succession.
"I had 34 putts again today and I'm just struggling," admitted Clarke, who failed to make it through US Open qualifying at Walton Heath on Monday, is down to 94th in the world from 35th at the start of the year and has not played all four rounds since early February.
"I sound like a broken record at the moment but that's the way I am at the minute."
In contrast, Westwood has been in a rich vein of form since changing putters after the first round of the Andalucia Open at the end of April, going on to win his first European Tour title in almost four years in Marbella and finishing 21st and 12th the following two weeks.
The former European number one carded seven birdies at Fontana Golf Club but also dropped two shots and reeled off a litany of missed chances and encounters with snap-happy spectators.
"You don't often walk off disappointed with a 66 but I am fairly irritated with the way my scoring was today," Westwood said. "It was comfortably the worst it could have been.
"Second hole of the day I missed from three feet, on the 15th I hit a three-iron to about 30ft and three-putted, 18th I hit three-iron when I should have hit four and went through the back which is not good.
"On my second shot to the first someone clicked a camera on my backswing and I fatted a sand-iron short of the green, chipped to two feet but missed that. I also three-putted the seventh and hit it in the worst spot imaginable on the ninth so it should have been comfortably better than 66."
Experienced caddy Dave Renwick was left in no doubt what
Westwood thought of that wrong club on the 18th, the 34-year-old
joking: "What I said (complete with two expletives) was mainly to
myself, but I said it loud enough so Dave
could hear it!"
Westwood was equally unhappy with the huge number of cameras carried by spectators, many of them no doubt taking pictures of local hero and defending champion Markus Brier, who made up the star three-ball.
"It got a bit ridiculous and even Markus was a bit embarrassed," Westwood added. "There is only one tournament a year here so I suppose people are not going to know, but I didn't see any 'No Cameras' signs out there."
Brier carded an opening 70 to lie seven shots off the clubhouse lead held by England's Graeme Storm, who experienced a remarkable change in fortunes. The former British Amateur champion had missed the cut in his last three events and withdrew from Monday's US Open qualifier at Walton Heath.
Wales' Bradley Dredge came in for criticism for making the same decision after missing out on victory in the Wales Open on Sunday evening, but Storm was happy he had made the right choice.
"To be honest I'm in a different situation to Bradley, who has been playing well and only just failed to qualify through the world rankings," said Storm, who finished the day one ahead of Swede Martin Erlandsson with England's Tom Whitehouse and Swede Patrik Sjoland another shot back.
"I just thought there was no point going to the qualifier because if I qualified I was probably not going to break 80 the way I was playing. It's a long way to go to waste my money.
"It was the right decision to withdraw and I think today has proved that."
What little wind there was on a sweltering day sprang up sporadically in the afternoon, and Danny Denison was one of the few to make an impression on the leaderboard with a 66.
Two groups behind Denison, Colin Montgomerie could only manage a 73 which featured a watery double-bogey on the seventh and three putts for par on the 18th.
