Khan stung by fine

England’s Simon Khan took the lead in the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House today – and then was given a whopping £8,000 (€11,600) fine for slow play.

The 32-year-old from Essex was told by European Tour senior referee Andy McFee that he had taken 16 seconds too long over his tee shot at the short 17th.

Khan promptly bogeyed the hole and then fell two behind Darren Clarke, who began his bid to become the first home winner of the title since John O’Leary in 1982 with three birdies in his first seven holes.

The punishment for slow play is normally £2,000 (€2,900), but tour regulations state that for anybody who is timed on 10 or more occasions in a season the penalty is doubled.

Khan, who suffered a one-stroke penalty and £2,000 (€2,900) fine at the Volvo PGA Championship last year, falls into that category and, having been fined £4,000 (€5,800) during the British Masters at the Forest of Arden last week, his latest offence led to another doubling of the fine.

The day had begun superbly for last year’s Wales Open champion – he ran into slow play trouble there as well – when he birdied the 12th and 13th on the demanding Colin Montgomerie-designed course west of Dublin.

But he found a patch of ferocious rough over the green at the 176-yard 17th and did well to drop only one stroke there.

In the group behind, Montgomerie himself became the first player to eagle the 513-yard 18th, his ninth, and having bogeyed the 13th and birdied the 17th he was out in 34 and only one behind Clarke.

Local favourite Padraig Harrington, suffering with a stiff neck, was partnering Khan and he had a real rollercoaster rode over the inward half.

The world number nine, doubtful earlier in the week, bogeyed the 11th, double-bogeyed the 14th and bogeyed the 17th after pulling his tee shot long and left, but there were also birdies at the 554-yard 15th and 18th.

With the wind nothing too fierce the early scoring was not as bad as feared.

Welshman Stephen Dodd was also two under, while in the group on one under was 44-year-old Barry Lane, who finished joint 11th in his defence of the British Masters last week.

Steve Webster, one of the European Tour’s most in-form players, was a non-starter because of severely blistered feet.

The 30-year-old from Warwickshire, who won his first professional title at the Italian Open two weeks ago and was fifth on Sunday, pulled out after the pro-am.

According to a Tour spokesperson Webster very nearly did not play at the Forest of Arden last week because of the problem.

It deals a severe blow to his chances of qualifying for the United States Open at Pinehurst next month.

Webster lies seventh on the Order of Merit with almost £300,000 (€436,500) and the top two – currently South Africans Retief Goosen and Ernie Els – earn spots in the US Open following next week’s BMW Championship at Wentworth.

Top amateur ahead of Tiger Woods in the 1995 Open at St Andrews, the former England international has played in only one major since, missing the halfway cut back at the Home of Golf five years ago.

Local player Stephen Browne, who came through the qualifying school last November, was the one to benefit from Webster’s withdrawal – and he was going to be thrust into the limelight whether he liked it or not because his partners were Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam.