Woosnam sticks with long putter

Ian Woosnam went back on his promise to return to a short putter in the first round of the Celtic Manor Wales Open today.

Woosnam had spoken on the eve of the £1.5m (€2.3m) event of his determination to conquer his long-standing putting problems with a standard-length club rather than the longer putters which caused controversy recently.

World number three Ernie Els called for ‘belly’ and ‘broomhandle’ putters to be banned last month, at the same tournament where recent convert and compatriot Trevor Immelman won by one shot from Padraig Harrington.

Woosnam agrees with another long putter devotee, world number two Vijay Singh, that the club is not as easy to use as Els makes out, but admitted: “I feel like it is not part of golf.

“I think it is part of the mind battle and I want to beat it. I feel I have given in having to use it. The feeling of putting with the short one is terrible but I would rather putt with a short one if I possibly can.

“If it means missing a lot of cuts, that’s what I’m going to do.”

But after missing the cut by 10 shots at the PGA Championship last week after crashing to a second-round 82, Woosnam seemed to have decided he had enough problems with his long game to also have to worry about missing short putts.

There were no immediate problems this morning as the former world number one opened with a par four on the testing 471-yard first, narrowly missing from 20ft for birdie.

Playing partner Lee Westwood also missed a good chance to get into red figures, the former European number one missing from six feet after a superb approach.

At level par the duo were two shots off the early lead held by Germany’s Marcel Siem, who had birdied the first two holes.

An eight-strong group were a shot back on one under, including England’s Warren Bennett and Gary Evans.