Clarke serves notice with opening 68

CARNOUSTIE, widely regarded as one of the most difficult golf courses on the planet, didn’t really show its teeth on yesterday’s opening day of the €4m Dunhill Links Championship.

The draw dictated all six Irish players in the field were to play this largely unattractive piece of links yesterday.

But the weather was not as treacherous as the forecast had predicted, although a stiff wind swept the course and with the pro-am format making five-and-a-half hour rounds the order of the day, patience and forbearance were vital ingredients for the professionals hoping to get such a lucrative tournament off to a positive start.

Three players, Rich Beem, the American who captured his country’s PGA Championship in 2002, the in-form David Howell of England and Italy’s Alessandro Tadini, share the lead after day one.

They each shot five- under-par rounds of 67 at Carnoustie, which turned out to be the easiest of the three venues in use.

A 68 by Sam Torrance, a winner on the European Seniors Tour last week, was the best score at St Andrews, while Kenneth Ferrie, who captured the Smurfit European Open at the K Club this year, Welshman Bradley Dredge and Keith Horne of South Africa are joint leaders on the same mark at Kingsbarns.

All of which means that the destination of the €661,000 first prize remains open.

Darren Clarke, playing his first tournament since the NEC World Championship a month ago, is sitting nicely after a blemish-free opening round of 68.

Graeme McDowell is one shot behind, Padraig Harrington also kept a bogey off his card in a round of 70, and Gary Murphy, 71, and Damien McGrane, 72, are also in touch with the leaders.

However, it was a disappointing day for Paul McGinley. Playing in the same match as the actor Michael Douglas, the Dubliner got off to a bright start and was two under par for the first six. However, he bogeyed the 16th and 17th (his seventh and eighth) and dropped two more at the first and second from where he parred his way home. A two-over 74 leaves him with ground to make up today at St Andrews and tomorrow at Kingsbarns if he is to make the cut for Sunday’s final 18 holes.

Clarke should have no such worries but golf has taken a back seat in recent times as his wife Heather continues to battle illness.

Apart from a few practice sessions at his club, Queenwood, Clarke has played little or no golf in the past month.

He described yesterday’s 68 as “a pretty decent score”.

“I had a lot of opportunities so it could have been a little better. But I have no complaints and I am very pleased not to have dropped any shots. It’s nice to get out there again in a tournament and also to get Carnoustie out of the way.”

Clarke began at the 10th and was quickly into his stride with a drive and nine iron to the 479 yards, par five, 12th. A 20-footer dropped for a two at the next and further birdies followed at the second and third courtesy of a couple of 15-footers.

Harrington’s 70 was compiled very much in similar fashion except he managed only two birdies, at the 12th (his third) and the fifth, where he tapped in from less than a yard.

The big disappointment came at the 570-yard sixth, where he was playing into the teeth of the wind and where he got home with a drive and three wood. But he left his first putt 10 feet short and missed the next.

“I’m just not getting a run at things and while I holed at least three good putts for par, I missed a whole lot of birdie chances,” he said.

“I was a bounce away from 66 and took 70. I have to try to stay patient and not get frustrated. That’s the only way to deal with it. I putted much better and I’m happy with that. I’m just waiting for things to turn around and the breaks to follow. To knock it on the green at the sixth in two and then three-putt was disappointing.

“As for my partner, JP McManus, he improved my score by six shots and when he had to do things, he was brilliant.”

It was a source of quiet satisfaction to Harrington that he and McManus (the 2002 champions) totalled eight under in the team section, one better than McDowell and Dermot Desmond, their playing partners, and they are currently three off the pace.

McDowell, who got his round off to the best possible start with four birdies in the first five holes, was coasting nicely until driving into a fairway bunker at the sixth, his 15th.

He had what he said was an “horrendous” lie and took two to extricate himself. The hole cost him a seven but to the Ulsterman’s credit, he quickly recovered and rolled in a 20-footer for a two only two holes later. A 69 leaves him nicely positioned as he prepares for today’s battle with St Andrews.

One of the highlights of the day at Carnoustie was a run of eagle, birdie, eagle by Kilkenny native Gary Murphy from the 12th through the 14th.