Putting trouble for Olazabal

Jose Maria Olazabal, for so long one of golf’s greatest putters, now finds it the part of the game that troubles him most.

“The last few tournaments it’s been awful,” said the double Masters champion going into the French Open today.

“If you don’t putt well you’re not going to win. End of question – simple as that.”

Olazabal, now 37, is not the first to find that as time goes by the more the putts go by the hole rather than in it.

“It gets more difficult. When you are 14-17 you are not thinking about the one coming back. That’s a handicap that comes with experience.

“It’s also a matter of not spending as much time on it as I used to as a kid. Sometimes you get tired at a certain stage of working really hard for five, six or seven hours and you hardly have any energy left to spend another two hours on your chipping and putting.

“But I have been working hard on it lately and we will see what it brings.

“I am still ambitious. First to take my game to the level where I can compete - once I do that I think I have the demeanour and mental strength to do well under pressure – and then I truly believe that if I play my game I have a chance to win some majors.”

The French Open was Olazabal’s last win in Europe two years ago. But that was in Lyon and now the tournament is back at Le Golf National near Versailles.

Prize money has more than doubled in the two years since the Spaniard triumphed and the winner on Sunday will take home over £290,000 (€420,000).

Olazabal was paired this afternoon with the latest in the long line of first-time winners this season – Denmark’s Sore Kjeldsen.

After capturing the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles last weekend Kjeldsen said he suspected the other Danes would be taking to the practice range even more to try to strike back.

He was able to see for himself whether Anders Hansen could respond. Last year’s Volvo PGA champion was the other member of the group.

Star trio this morning were England’s Ian Poulter and Justin Rose and Australian Stephen Leaney, runner-up in the United States Open where Rose finished fifth two weeks ago.