Faldo needs to show fight

Nick Faldo needed all his fighting qualities to dig himself out of a self-made hole at the Cisco World Match Play championship at Wentworth today.

The 45-year-old twice winner, making his 18th appearance in the event, trailed New Zealander Michael Campbell by three at lunch. And he really only had himself to blame that the deficit was as big as it was.

After being gifted the opening hole – Campbell double-bogeyed it – Faldo lost the eighth, ninth and 13th to birdies, but then opened the door to his opponent.

The Kiwi won the 481-yard 15th with a bogey as Faldo three-putted from only 15 feet for a six and then, after Campbell had conceded the next following a drive into a ditch, Faldo’s putting let him down.

Campbell holed from 10 feet for a birdie four at the 571-yard 17th and Faldo, suddenly requiring his seven-footer for a half, missed it.

Worse was to come. A brilliant three wood to five feet on the last set up the opportunity for a winning eagle, but again Faldo failed to convert and the hole was halved in birdie fours.

They were meeting for the right to tackle defending champion Ian Woosnam in the quarter-finals.

In the other three first round matches Colin Montgomerie established a three-hole lead on 46-year-old American Fred Funk after 15, but Justin Rose trailed Vijay Singh by two at the same point and Padraig Harrington, last year’s runner-up, was one down to Canadian Mike Weir after driving out of bounds at the 17th.

The Ryder Cup Dubliner was two down after 10, but birdied the long 12th and won the next with a par four when left-hander Weir found trouble.

Rose had still to win a hole as his game neared lunch, Singh’s successes at the fifth and 10th – both par threes – putting him in the driving seat.

First the Fijian made a 15-footer for birdie, then Rose missed the green and failed to get up and down.

Funk struck first against Montgomerie, who bunkered his tee shot at the second, but the Scot came back to win the fifth with a 14-foot birdie putt, the ninth with a par four and the 10th with another two after a seven iron to three feet.

Funk did take the 11th, Montgomerie three-putting from a mere 15 feet, but the Ryder Cup star’s response was spectacular – a three wood to seven feet for an eagle on the 509-yard 12th.

That made the gap two and it quickly became three thanks to Montgomerie’s third two of the morning, this time courtesy of a 15-footer on the 14th.