Fowler chases rare success

Australian golfer Peter Fowler, 44 next Monday and seeking his first victory for 10 years, missed the Forest of Arden course record by just two strokes today.

The father of four began the Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters with a superb seven-under-par 65 to lead Scotland’s Raymond Russell by one.

Shot of the morning, though, was a 222-yard four iron from Londoner Chris Gane. It came on the 524-yard seventh and when it dropped into the hole for a two it gave the left-hander the first albatross of the European tour season.

Fowler won the Australian Open 20 years ago and was a World Cup winner with Wayne Grady in 1989, but his last success anywhere was the 1993 BMW International Open in Germany.

He went into a real slump after that and had to make three trips to the tour qualifying school before re-establishing himself last season – helped enormously by a runners-up finish behind Ernie Els in the Heineken Classic.

This year he has already had four top-10 finishes, the last of them seventh place in last week’s Wales Open, to stand 26th on the Order of Merit.

This morning he never looked back from the time he had a hat-trick of birdies from the third, picking up further strokes on the seventh, 12th, 13th and 15th.

Russell served up a quick reminder of his unique European tour record with an even faster opening.

In the same event on the same course in 1997 the 30-year-old Scot started with eight successive birdies.

A repeat of that was out of the question when Russell kicked off with a par four, but birdies on the next three and then another at the difficult sixth took him into a share of the early lead with Fowler.

After turning in 32, however, the former Cannes Open champion double-bogeyed the 435-yard 10th. But he then came back with another birdie at the 11th and three more in a row from the 15th.

There were few fireworks from the group featuring Ian Woosnam, defending champion Justin Rose and last week’s Wales Open winner Ian Poulter. With three to play Rose and Poulter – first and second last year after a terrific duel at Woburn – were level par and Woosnam one over.

Rose and Woosnam were involved in searches for their opening drives after carving them into the rough.

They both found their balls and Woosnam birdied the hole – the 435-yard 10th - with an 18-foot putt, but then Rose three-putted from similar range on the next and at the long 12th tangled with the rough again.

This time it was when his pitch over the lake carried the green as well, but even though the ball was not even visible from a couple of yards away the 22-year-old played a superb recovery to four feet and saved his par to remain one over.

It was a shot to give him confidence for his US Open debut next week, when he can expect every single green to be ringed by dense rough.

Poulter also bogeyed the 11th, coming up just short of the green with his approach, and was disappointed to take five on the 547-yard next as well after his pitch spun back down the tier running across the green.

While Rose and Poulter rattled off five pars in a row Woosnam bogeyed the 13th and 15th, but then all three birdied the 516-yard 17th, Poulter from just over the green and Rose by making a 15-footer after going into a greenside bunker.

Title favourites Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie were among the later starters, Montgomerie having filed a late entry after missing the cut at Celtic Manor last week.