B&H Open Golf: Clarke gets a little help from a friend

Lee Westwood turned his attentions back to his own game today - after helping Darren Clarke to sort out his.

Clarke had been relieved to survive the halfway cut at the Benson and Hedges International Open at The Belfry after slumping to as 76 yesterday.

But 30 minutes of coaching from the man who pipped him to the European number one title last season appeared to have done the trick, the Ulsterman improving eight strokes today to improve from one over par to three under.

That was still seven adrift of Swedish rookie Henrik Stenson, who had still to resume after starting the £1million event with scores of 66 and 68 for a three-stroke advantage over Dane Thomas Bjorn.

‘‘Lee watched me for 30 minutes on the range,’’ said Clarke. ‘‘The ball was too far back and I was having to use my hands too much.

‘‘It came from hitting punch shots in Spain because it was windy and then going to Japan, where the grass was very soft.

‘‘There was no need to phone Butch (his coach Butch Harmon). I spent another hour working on it on the range and played much better today. I could have shot really low.’’

Apart from missing a host of putts, a birdie chance went begging at the 564-yard 17th when he found himself plugged in a greenside bunker.

‘‘These are probably the worst bunkers we play in all year. It’s a combination of new sand and all the rain we’ve had, but overall they’ve done a fantastic job to get the course as good as it is.’’

Westwood was three under overnight, but in the glorious sunshine bogeyed the second to lose further ground.

Down in 171st place in the current Order of Merit after taking a long winter break and then missing the Masters to await the birth of his first child, the Worksop golfer admitted he had no great expectations from this week.

Colin Montgomerie had higher hopes despite missing the cut on his last two starts, but there were more problems for the Scot when he set off again at two under.

He did birdie the long third, but then came bogeys on the next two holes to leave him one under.

There was some good scoring elsewhere, however. Argentina’s Eduardo Romero equalled the course record with a 66 to set the early clubhouse target of 210, six under.

It could have been even better. At the famous 10th the hole was reduced from 311 yards to 260 to tempt players to try to carry the lake and make the green.

Romero did that successfully, but then three-putted for par, but that was forgotten as he birdied three of the last four.

This is just the third tour event of the season for Romero, who in January tried to break up two of his dogs when they started fighting and was bitten on his left leg.

‘‘It damaged a tendon and I had to sit with my leg up for two months,’’ he said.

Before the leaders teed off there had already been three eagle twos on the 10th by Norwegian Henrik Bjornstad, Australian Brett Rumford and Swede Fredrik Henge. But England’s Gary Emerson had a nine there to crash from one under to four over.

It was not the highest score there during the week, though. German Thomas Gogele put four balls in the water yesterday en route to an 11.