Hours of putting practice pays off for O’Hara

HOURS spent in his bedroom last week practising his putting and watching the Masters at the same time paid handsome dividends for Scot Steven O’Hara yesterday.

The 24-year-old, a team-mate of Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell in the 2001 Walker Cup win in America, took a share of the first round lead in the Jazztel Spanish Open at windy San Roque.

A two-under-par 70 was good enough to put O’Hara alongside Swedes Peter Gustafsson and Peter Hanson, Italian Emanuele Canonica and Spaniards Santiago Luna, Diego Borrego and the 49-year-old, Jose Rivero.

In his second full season on the European Tour, O’Hara stands 134th in putting and recognised the need to improve that part of his game.

“I putted for three or four hours a day,” he stated. “I’ve been striking the ball well but losing two or three strokes a round through putting. You can’t compete when you are doing that.

“My bedroom carpet’s pretty fast but I haven’t done it here this week. The floor’s marble and that’s maybe a bit too fast.”

In contrast, Paul Broadhurst returned to action two weeks after winning his first European Tour title for 10 years and shot 80.

Not that the Portuguese Open champion was the only one of the leading names to suffer in the difficult conditions.

Paul McGinley, at 64th in the world, the highest-ranked player taking part, took 76, Volvo PGA winner Scott Drummond 77 and rising star Nick Dougherty had a 78.

Broadhurst, back as a winner three years after having to fight for his future at the qualifying school, described it as “just one of those days.”

He, McGinley and Paul Lawrie were paired together and dropped eight strokes between them in the first three holes. But while Lawrie fought back for a level-par 72 Broadhurst shanked a four-iron out of bounds en route to a quadruple-bogey eight at the 442-yard eighth - his 17th - and three-putted the next for a closing bogey six.

“If I’d finished four-four instead of eight-six the round would have been okay but it’s not easy out there,” he added.

McGinley, meanwhile, repaired the damage of a double-bogey seven on the 10th to stand level par with five to play but then dropped a further five shots in the next four holes.

It was all a bit reminiscent of the bizarre climax in Portugal, where Broadhurst thought he had blown his hopes with a last-green bogey before Lawrie triple-bogeyed the 71st and Barry Lane, leading by two, finished with a quadruple-bogey nine.

Lawrie, who had three birdies in the final four holes, said: “Hitting my second shot out of bounds was not the best of starts, but you’ve just got to stick in there when things like that happen.”

England’s Roger Chapman became just the third player in tour history - after Sam Torrance and Eamonn Darcy - to clock up 600 starts but a three-over 75 was not quite the way he hoped to celebrate.