Seve sneaks through

Seve Ballesteros surprised himself by making the halfway cut in the Madeira Island Open today – after blaming tournament referees for causing him to miss it.

Sat, 22 Mar, 2003 - 11:24

Seve Ballesteros surprised himself by making the halfway cut in the Madeira Island Open today – after blaming tournament referees for causing him to miss it.

Ballesteros was convinced, even as late as this morning, that he had failed to make only his fourth cut in two years after a second-round 75 left him seven over par at Santo da Serra.

However, with a strong wind blowing as the weakened field completed the delayed second round this morning, the scoring went from bad to worse – and Ballesteros was one of those who made it through to the last two rounds.

Almost forgotten amid all the furore, Spain’s Jesus Maria Arruti led on four under par – one ahead of England’s Andrew Marshall, Wales’ Bradley Dredge and Swedish pair Henrik Stenson and Fredrik Andersson.

Yesterday Ballesteros took the unprecedented step of asking to speak to the press to spell out his fury at being warned for slow play – and he eventually accused the tournament director of calling him a liar and having a blazing row in the car park.

The five-time major winner was fuming about being timed by two referees for 10 holes and told to speed up play as his group had fallen 36 minutes behind schedule after just nine holes.

The 45-year-old was also irate after claiming referee John Grant said ‘I don’t care’ when Ballesteros tried to explain why his three-ball was taking so long.

Journalists then spoke to tournament director Jose Maria Zamora who expressed his doubt that Grant would have said that to Ballesteros – and when Ballesteros found out he accused Zamora of calling him a liar and stormed back into the press centre, demanding Zamora join him in speaking to the press.

Zamora refused to do so, however, and Ballesteros went out into the car park where the two conducted a furious row in Spanish.

Earlier, a clearly annoyed Ballesteros said: “I had three arguments with the same referee [Grant]. On the ninth fairway he said ‘You are a hole behind’.

“I said we had to stop twice to drop the ball and he said ‘I don’t care, you have to carry on’. I think that’s a very rude way to answer someone who has played the game for 30 years.

“Instead of trying to help he was only interested in penalising me. I did not get penalised but I got one warning.

“I am the only star who has won major titles here. It was very important for the Madeira people for me to play well and make the cut – but I did not make it. It really broke my concentration. I was upset on the course.”

Latest leaderboard:

1 ARRUTI, Jesus Maria SP 18 -4 66 74

T2 MARSHALL, Andrew ENG 18 -3 71 70

T2 DREDGE, Bradley WAL 18 -3 69 72

T2 STENSON, Henrik SWE 18 -3 72 69

T2 ANDERSSON, Fredrik SWE 18 -3 73 68

T6 SANTI, Marcello IT 18 -2 69 73

T6 PHILLIPS, Van ENG 18 -2 68 74

T8 ILONEN , Mikko FIN 18 -1 73 70

T8 CORT, Matthew ENG 18 -1 71 72

T8 LUNA, Santiago SP 18 -1 71 72

T8 COLTART, Andrew SCOT 18 -1 74 69