EUROPEAN TOUR:GONZALO FERNANDEZ-CASTANO began the windswept Qatar Masters with a brilliant six under par 66. The Spaniard birdied the last three holes to deny 45-year-old American John Daly – 543rd in the world – the overnight lead in the second leg of the European Tour's Middle East swing.
The desert storm was such that many players wore sunglasses to try to limit the amount of sand blowing into their eyes on what Daly called a “brutal” day.
Defending champion Thomas Bjorn slumped to a 79 and fellow stars Ross Fisher and Henrik Stenson both failed to break 80, but Lee Westwood kept his hopes alive with a 71.
Fernandez-Castano could well take over top spot from Rory McIlroy in the race for Ryder Cup places if he wins this weekend and the 31-year-old from Madrid almost defied belief by grabbing nine birdies in all.
“I would have taken level par,” said the man who last year missed the cut in next-to-last place with two rounds of 78 and then was out of action for almost six months with a back injury.
He said: “We couldn’t see the ball landing on the fairways and I just tried to keep it as low as possible. I think I just got lucky and holed some important putts. Putting is the most difficult thing on a windy day.”
Daly’s last victory was eight years ago, he no longer has a PGA Tour card and the last time he was in the headlines was for walking out of the Australian Open in November after hitting a succession of shots into a lake and saying he had run out of balls.
It was in a strong wind that he won the 1995 Open at St Andrews, but he did not expect this. “I’m pretty shocked,” Daly said after keeping a bogey off his card.
“I had five and a half weeks off and really didn’t touch a club much. It’s one of the best rounds I’ve ever played in a wind like that. You feel like you are eating a lot of sand.”
Only nine of the 132 players broke 70, with Korean KJ Choi and Australian Jason Day shooting 68 and England’s Richard Finch and Danny Willett, Scot Paul Lawrie, Swede Peter Hanson and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts being one further back.
Lawrie, whose win in the event in 1999 was followed by his Open Championship triumph that summer, said: “I’ve sand in places I didn’t know I had places.”
Graeme McDowell won his duel with American Hunter Mahan — opponents in the decisive singles match at Celtic Manor two years ago — but 73 and 74 kept them both in the pack. World number four Martin Kaymer hit back from missing the cut in his Abu Dhabi title defence last week with a 71.
Royal Portrush and Carnoustie have been chosen to host the British Amateur Championship in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Portrush is the only course outside Scotland and England to stage the Open Championship – Max Faulkner prevailed over the famous Northern Ireland links course in 1951 – and it was recently announced as the venue for this summer’s Irish Open which takes place from June 28th to July 1st.
Carnoustie saw Scottish player Paul Lawrie win the 1999 British Open after Jean Van de Velde triple-bogeyed the final hole, while Padraig Harrington also triumphed there in 2007 when he beat Spain’s Sergio Garcia in a play-off to claim his first Major title.
This year’s British Amateur championship will be staged at Royal Troon in Scotland from June 18th-23rd.
(British unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72): 66 – Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa)
67 – John Daly (USA)
68 – K J Choi (Kor), Jason Day (Aus)
69 – Peter Hanson (Swe), Richard Finch, Paul Lawrie, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Danny Willett
70 – Anders Hansen (Den), James Kingston (Rsa), Richard Green (Aus), George Coetzee (Rsa), Oliver Fisher
71 – Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Soren Hansen (Den), Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Ben Curtis (USA), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Peter Lawrie, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Graeme Storm, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Shaun Micheel (USA), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Gregory Havret (Fra), Michael Hoey, Lee Westwood, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Marcel Siem (Ger), Andrew Dodt (Aus), David Lynn, Simon Khan, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg)
72 – Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Chris Wood, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Oliver Wilson, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Lee Slattery, Marc Warren, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Markus Brier (Aut), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa)
73 – Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Scott Jamieson, Gary Boyd, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Graeme McDowell, Matthew Zions (Aus), Richard McEvoy, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Alex Cejka (Ger), David Drysdale, Stephen Gallacher, Romain Wattel (Fra), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Keith Horne (Rsa), Mark Foster
74 – Christian Nilsson (Swe), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Phillip Price, Rhys Davies, Kenneth Ferrie, Brett Rumford (Aus), Anthony Wall, Hunter Mahan (USA), Federico Colombo (Ita)
75 – Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), George Murray, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Robert Coles, Branden Grace (Rsa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Richard S Johnson (Swe), Shane Lowry, Pablo Martin (Spa), Paul McGinley, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
76 – Christian Cevaer (Fra), Richie Ramsay, Michael Campbell (Nzl), David Howell, Gareth Maybin, Colin Montgomerie, Todd Hamilton (USA), Tom Lewis, Oscar Floren (Swe), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Tommy Fleetwood, Benjamin Hebert (Fra)
77 – Jamie Moul, Ricardo Santos (Por), Johan Edfors (Swe), James Morrison, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Peter Uihlein (USA), Daniel Denison, Sam Little
78 – Robert Karlsson (Swe), Max Williams (Gbr), Damien McGrane, Peter Whiteford, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Tano Goya (Arg), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
79 – Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Gregory Bourdy (Fra); 80 – Bradley Dredge; 81 – Rolf Muntz (Ned), Ross Fisher, Andrea Pavan (Ita), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa); 82 – Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Henrik Stenson (Swe); 84 – Ali Abdullah Al Bishi (Qat); 86 – Yoseph Warren Dance (USA).
