Fichardt falls foul at nightmare ninth

One of the longest holes on the European Tour was again proving to be one of the toughest today and not even the leader of the French Open could escape unscathed.

One of the longest holes on the European Tour was again proving to be one of the toughest as well today – and not even the leader of the French Open could escape unscathed.

The 596-yard ninth at Le Golf National near Paris had seen everything up to a 10 on the opening day and South African Darren Fichardt, three clear of the field coming to it, ran up a double-bogey seven.

When the 29-year-old from Pretoria followed with bogeys at three of the next four holes he dropped to fourth place on two under, two behind Ian Woosnam, Richard Green and Jean-Francois Remesy.

Woosnam had yet to resume after his superb first-round 67, achieved in the worst of the wind, but Australian left-hander Green had only five holes to go and Remesy turned in a two-under 33 as he continued his bid to be the first home winner since Jean Garaialde in 1969.

The battle for Colin Montgomerie and Paul Casey, though, was to survive the halfway cut.

After 11 holes Montgomerie was five over par and Casey seven over.