First hole bogey fails to fluster McGinley

HE'S only 5 ft 7 ins and weighs in at less than 12 stone. But when Paul McGinley is on his game, he can hit the golf ball a mighty long way.

He demonstrated this at Royal Troon yesterday when he drove the green at the 379 yards 3rd and reached the dreaded 490 yards 11th with a drive and seven iron. The most unfortunate of bogeys at the 1st, where he had to call a penalty shot on himself, was compensated by three birdies and a two under par round of 69 which has got his 12th challenge for the Open off to a very satisfactory start.

He had a preferred tee time of 7.03am. The wind, generally speaking, hasn't yet made its presence felt, the greens are still in pristine condition. Not a pitch mark in sight. For McGinley, however, it meant climbing out of the bed at 5am and tucking into the porridge quarter of an hour later. Another thirty minutes and he was joining his Dublin caddy Darren Reynolds on the practice range.

McGinley doesn't much fancy this piece of golfing terrain. He feels it faces in the wrong direction, more often than not downwind, and so there is little opportunity to work on finessing his shots. As if to prove his intent, he drove twenty miles south to Turnberry on Wednesday to work on his game and did the same yesterday afternoon. Nevertheless, everything felt good and even better when he hammered a massive drive to within thirty yards of the first green. What happened next, though, might well have flattened lesser men.

"I pitched it over a bunker and even though the pin was on a downslope, I stopped it four feet from the hole", he related. "I addressed it and as I took the putter back, the ball moved a good inch and I actually hit it out of the heel of the putter and missed the hole by two inches. I called it straight away. The referee came over and asked at what stage the ball moved. My stroke had started so there was no penalty for hitting a moving ball. Nobody else had seen it but there was no question about calling a penalty on myself.

"That's three or four times it has happened to me now and it was unusual this morning because there was no wind. All I can say is that the hole was cut on a downslope and I had a downhiller and being only 7am, the greens were still cut pretty tight. It was just one of those things and of all the places for it to happen, the first round of a British Open, it was tough to take."

Others might have whined but for McGinley, widely regarded as one of the most intelligent and articulate people in professional golf, there was plenty of time to salvage something meaningful from the day.

"I had so much adrenalin running for the next two holes", he said. "I played the 2nd so aggressively. I hit a wonderful nine iron right over the top of the pin and made birdie from about fifteen feet. And then I drove it on the middle of the green at the 3rd and two putted from 25 feet. Then it was a case of opportunities that I didn't take until the next birdie came at the 16th. I had a good up and down at the 17th and that was it. I played the 11th perfectly and if I was to do that all week, I'd be happy. I hit a great drive down the middle of the fairway and put a seven iron to eighteen right of the flag and just missed the putt. The 16th I also played perfectly. We can hit the ball so far nowadays. It's 280 yards to the burn and I had to hit a two iron in the crosswind, with not even a helping wind, and left it about twenty yards short of the burn. I laid up short of the bunkers with a five iron and was left with a 79 yard pitch which I knocked to seven feet. The way I played the 18th proves just how much technology has improved. I hit a two iron level with the bunker Greg Norman drove into in the 1997 play-off and put a six iron on the green. He reached the trap back then with a three wood. It's a different game in many ways."

McGinley, no doubt, was encouraged by the arrival in his gallery with six holes to play of his wife Alison. She had flown up at the crack of dawn from their Sunningdale home even though she had to be back in good time last night to look after Niamh (5), Killian (3) and Maia (18 months). As we chatted after the round, she spotted Ian Poulter in what some would describe as a most preposterous pair of trousers embodying the Union Jack flag. We might both be diehard Arsenal fans but this was surely over the top. "Not at all," insisted Mrs McGinley who is noted for her interest in fashion and for her good sartorial taste. "And something else, Darren (Clarke) looks terrific in his new gear. If Paul was a bit taller, I wouldn't mind seeing him wear the same kind of clothes."