Jet dash does not pay off for Olazabal

Spending €7,500 for a private jet after the French Open was delayed did not pay dividends for Jose Maria Olazabal in the first round of the Open championship qualifier at Sunningdale.

The double Masters champion managed only a level par 70 on the New Course and, based on last year’s scoring, was left needing a 67 over the Old to have a chance of being among the 14 players to go through to St Andrews next month.

Twelve months ago Olazabal missed out on a play-off by two strokes after rounds of 71 and 68.

The former Ryder Cup star was among 49 players at Le Golf National yesterday for whom travelling on to England became a problem.

He finished joint eighth, but that was not enough to earn him one of the two Open exempt spots on offer – they went to Jean Van de Velde and Soren Hansen in second and third places.

Originally booked on an Air France flight to Heathrow there was no chance of catching that when his round did not finish until 8pm, so instead private arrangements were made to fly to Luton.

Playing partner Paul Broadhurst, only 39th in France after a closing 74, switched to a flight to Coventry and did not get to bed until midnight.

Because of the travel difficulties, however, start times were delayed by two hours, but with a last tee-off of 6.11pm as a result any play-off would almost certainly have to take place tomorrow and there was a possibility the second round would not finish either.

Early leader on the New Course was Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez with a three under 67, while over on the Old Australian Marcus Fraser and England’s Andrew Butterfield have five under 67s.

Argentina’s 50-year-old Eduardo Romero, who failed in his bid to become the European tour’s oldest-ever winner by falling from joint leader overnight to eighth, arrived only about an hour before his first tee-off time of 12.35pm.

When he knew he would miss his flight last night Romero tried to get on the first two this morning, but found both of those fully booked and so did not leave Paris until 10am.