Smyth squanders chance

Ireland's Des Smyth blew his chance to lead the field near the end of a long wind-wrecked opening day in the British Open seniors championship over Royal Aberdeen Golf Club’s Balgownie Links this evening.

The two-time winner on the US Champions Tour this season, and sixth on the American seniors’ money list, recovered from an early double bogey to come to the last hole with his sights on toppling American Loren Roberts, the long-time leader with a one-over-par 72.

Smyth needed to finish with a par four and a 71 to take the lead, even a bogey to share the number one position – but the 52-year-old from Drogheda ran up a double-bogey six, which included three putts.

As a result he fell back into a seven-way tie for second place on 73 with Frank Conner (United States), Giuseppe Cali (Italy), Derrick Cooper (England), Ray Stewart (Canada), Craig Stadler (United States) and Terry Gale (Australia).

Smyth said: “I had a great comeback. I was reeling after the first four holes - four over par and the wind was blowing terribly.

“I really didn’t know what to do. But I made a very long putt at the fifth and that seemed to settle me down.

“At the last I pulled my drive and finished up three-putting. I was trying to make the putt but I didn’t mean to hit it that hard.

“But if you had offered me a two-over-par 73 earlier in the round I would have taken it.”

And so Tom Watson’s pre-tournament prediction that a par total might win the first over-50s major to be played this far north in Scotland could be a shade on the conservative side.

A 25 to 30mph north-westerly cross wind played havoc with the scores on the exposed links.

With so many sevens, eights and even nines on the scoreboard, it was hard to believe some of the best over-50 tour professionals in the world were playing.

The average score for the round – 80.1 – was the highest in the history of an over-50s major championship, with the field of 144 a combined 1,333 strokes over par.

The highest round of the day was a 20-over-par 91 by American Hank Woodrome, who finished his round 6-9-5 against the par of 4-3-4.

There were some big names with big scores – Christy O’Connor junior (81), Gary Player (82), Tom Kite (83), Peter Jacobsen (83) and Tommy Horton (84), while defending champion Peter Oakley had an 82 late in the day after two sevens in an outward 43.

It was so tough that Carl Mason was happy to get round in 75, Greg Norman in 76 and Sam Torrance in 77.

Roberts, who was 50 on June 24, has been a regular competitor on the main US Tour this season and that probably stood the Californian in good stead – this was his first-ever round in a seniors’ tournament.

Roberts was a Ryder Cup player in 1995 and, along with Colin Montgomerie, lost out to Ernie Els in a play-off for the 1994 US Open at Oakmont.

He said: “I played fairly solid and had five birdies. Five birdies on a day like that should have been enough but I had a few three putts. When I had a birdie chance, I usually holed it.”

Craig Stadler, so successful on the US Champions Tour, matched Smyth’s 73 to be only two shots off the pace, while Tom Watson birdied the last to get away with a 75.

South African Hugh Baiocchi was sharing the lead at one-over-par with six holes to play but dropped like a stone down the leaderboard to finish on 81.

Two players had holes in one at the longest par three on the course – the 223-yard third hole.

Welshman Tony Price and Nick Job aced the same hole with a three wood to each earn 223 bottles of wine from sponsors Hardys.