Scottish OpenWhile the ability to put club on ball in a consistent fashion remains the most notable talent of your average European Tour professional, the propensity to moan and groan about anything and everything is an increasingly close second.
Yesterday, after an opening round of 66, five under par, in almost windless conditions and over an endlessly scenic Loch Lomond course, Nick Dougherty rounded off his day at the Barclays Scottish Open by sounding off about spike marks on the greens.
"The greens are poor," said the 23-year-old Englishman, who was fortunate to have played in the morning, before too many pairs of feet had left their imprints on the putting surfaces.
"This afternoon they are going to be hellish. You've got four-foot putts and you're hoping for dear life they don't jump off line. Every step you take, it's tearing up the greens."
Not that the extravagantly coiffeured Dougherty - like Ian Poulter, he has spikes at both ends of his body - suffered unduly. He did not drop a shot in finishing two strokes behind the early leaders, his left-handed countryman Stuart Little and Angel Cabrera of Argentina.
And so spikes became the issue of the day. Lee Westwood, who along with former British Open champion Paul Lawrie and South Africa's Richard Sterne posted a 65, admitted that he favours metal in his shoes.
"I think there's a maximum poundage you can get away with wearing soft spikes," Westwood explained, "and I struggle to grip in them. So I err on the side of keeping my balance and standing up, rather than being able to sneak around not making any noise."
The opposite can be said for the two early leaders. The only thing loud about Cabrera, who won the BMW Championship at Wentworth on his last visit to Britain in May, is the crunch of clubface on ball as he crushes another enormous tee-shot.
And Little, a 37-year-old Chelmsford native who is yet to finish higher than 118th on the Order of Merit in 10 years on the Tour, is as anonymous as his record suggests.
Until yesterday, Little's biggest claim to fame was his persistence. Ten times has the twice-Challenge Tour winner been to the European Tour qualifying school at San Roque in Spain; only five times has he graduated.
Yet Little currently sits 71st on the European Order of Merit, 47 places higher than ever before. He is, then, a man with nothing much to complain about. Which is a relief to us all.
Little, who has never finished better than a tie for sixth on the European Tour, rattled off eight birdies and a solitary bogey for his lowest score on tour in relation to par.
"I think the key thing for me today was my composure," he said. "I've been working with a couple of guys both on the swing and the psychological side and everything seems to be coming together into a good package."
Phil Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes for a four-under-par 67 to stay in touch with the first-round leaders.
The 2004 US Masters champion holed out from 15 feet at the 16th and also at the last to finish three strokes behind Cabrera Little.
"My game is certainly looking okay," world number four Mickelson said after mixing seven birdies with three bogeys. "I had a couple of shots I was lucky to get away with, but the seven birdies I made more than offset that.
"I was pleased with my opening round, although I didn't hit it as well I did in practice.
"My game felt really good coming into these couple of weeks, with the last two majors of the year to come," added the left-hander, who spent Monday and Tuesday at St Andrews to prepare for next week's British Open.
Cabrera reeled off seven birdies in a blemish-free 64 to set the early pace.
Ireland's two amateurs in the field had mixed fortunes. Rory McIlroy, the 16-year-old from Co Down, had two birdies and five bogeys in his 74, which left him an outside chance of making the cut.
But British Amateur champion Brian McElhinney from the North West club crashed to an eight-over 79 - that included two birdies - to lie at the end of the field.
ScottishOpen: First round scores
(British unless stated)
(x) denotes amateur
64 - Angel Cabrera (Arg), Stuart Little.
65 - Lee Westwood, Richard Sterne (Rsa), Paul Lawrie.
66 - Nick Dougherty, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Thongchai Jaidee (Thai), Miguel Angel Martin (Spa), Tom Lehman (US).
67 - David Drysdale, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Kenneth Ferrie, Tim Clark (Rsa), Simon Khan, Jonathan Lomas, Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke (NIre), Greg Owen, Maarten Lafeber (Ned).
68 - Richard Finch, Stephen Gallacher, Luke Donald, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Mark Roe, Gary Orr, Alastair Forsyth, Colin Montgomerie, Johan Skold (Swe), Martin Maritz (Rsa), Robert Allenby (Aus), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Klas Eriksson (Swe), David Carter.
69 - David Griffiths, Ian Poulter, Chris Kelly, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Miles Tunnicliff, Neil Cheetham, Pierre Fulke (Swe), Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Anthony Wall, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Richard Bland, Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Terry Price (Aus), Anders Hansen (Den), Oliver Wilson, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Christopher Hanell (Swe) David Lynn, Rolf Muntz (Ned).
70 - Robert Coles, Adam Scott (Aus), Ernie Els (Rsa), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Simon Wakefield, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Phillip Archer, David Frost (Rsa), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Philip Golding, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Garry Houston, Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Matthew King, Marc Cayeux (Zim), Eduardo Romero (Arg), Costantino Rocca (Ita).
71 - Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Steven O'Hara, Stuart Manley, Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Lee Slattery, Colin Gillies, Barry Lane, Brian Davis, Thomas Levet (Fra), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Simon Dyson, Sam Little, Darren Fichardt (Rsa), John Bickerton, Jamie Donaldson, Simon Hurd, Andrew McLardy.
72 - Marten Olander (Swe), Santiago Luna (Spa), Damien McGrane (Ire), Markus Brier (Aut), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Sandy Lyle, Brad Kennedy (Aus), Andrew Marshall, Gary Murphy (Ire), Scott Henderson, Stephen Scahill (Nzl), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Ian Woosnam, Ben Mason, Scott Drummond, Bradley Dredge, Gordon Brand Jnr, Fredrik Henge (Swe).
73 - Tim Petrovic (US), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Peter Senior (Aus), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Peter O'Malley (Aus), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Paul Broadhurst, Marcel Siem (Ger), Raymond Russell, Jamie Spence, James Kingston (Rsa), Ian Garbutt.
74 - Sam Torrance, Andrew Oldcorn, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Mark Foster, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), (x) Rory McIlroy (NIre), Johan Axgren (Swe), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Graeme Storm, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Leif Westerberg (Swe).
75 - Peter Lawrie (Ire), Malcolm Mackenzie, Stephen Dodd, Dean Robertson, Brett Rumford (Aus), Justin Rose, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Gary Emerson.
76 - Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Jarrod Moseley (Aus), Andrew Coltart, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra).
77 - Gregory Havret (Fra), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), (x) George Murray.
78 - Titch Moore (Rsa), Craig Ronald.
79 - (x) Brian McElhinney (Ire), David Park.
Withdrew: Thomas Bjorn (Den).
