A round up of other European Open stories in brief...

Clarke putts bad start behind him

A SNAP-HAPPY photographer paid the price for clicking his camera at an inopportune time when Darren Clarke missed a short par putt on his fourth hole yesterday. Clarke got a marshal to remove the snapper from inside the ropes, and went on to bogey four out of five holes as his round threatened to spiral out of control.

However, the Ulsterman got back on track by covering his homeward run in 32, hitting every fairway and green in regulation, to sign for a 71.

The secret? He felt comfortable on the greens, thanks to a putting tip dispensed to him the previous evening by his old coach Pete Cowan. "Pete was with me for years and years and years and knows me better than anyone. He was with me when I was working with Stan Utley, and that's when I was putting my best. I'd tried to get back to that putting but had misinterpreted a few things and Pete put me straight," said Clarke.

Mediate set for Loch Lomond

ROCCO MEDIATE, the American who took Tiger Woods to a play-off in the US Open two weeks ago, is to play in next week's Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

The 45-year-old has not yet qualified for the following week's British Open at Royal Birkdale, but is on course to do so from a mini-moneylist on the US Tour which ends this Sunday.

Free entry brings in the punters

IN REPLICATING a move that proved so successful in its time at the K Club, spectators to the first round of the European Open at the London club - actually some 30 miles south of the English capital, and close to the Brands Hatch racing circuit in the Kent countryside - availed of free entry yesterday. Some 23,856 golf fans took up the offer.

When the initiative was introduced in Straffan in 2006, over 29,000 spectators availed of it.

Selected tee-times
8.00 - Garcia, McDowell, Backstrom.
8.10 - Rose, McGinley, Fasth.
8.20 - Edfors, McGrane, Paul Lawrie.
9.20 - Frost, Jonzon, McIlroy.
12.30 - Barham, Fisher, Campbell.
12.50 - Sterne, Poulter, Montgomerie.
1.00 - Clarke, Karlsson, Harrington.
1.10 - Hedblom, Jacquelin, Lawrie.
On Television
Sky Sports 1 - 10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm