Goosen secures straightforward passage

For the second year running, Retief Goosen raced into the second round of the HSBC World Match Play championship at Wentworth.

Top seed in the absence of the world’s top four players, Goosen thrashed England’s Kenneth Ferrie, outsider of the 16-man field, by an eight and seven margin.

Last season the South African established a new tournament record on the opening day when he demolished American Jeff Maggert 12 and 11.

Goosen, an approximate nine under par for the 29 holes, had a long wait to discover his quarter-final opponent – after being four-up after 13 holes Colin Montgomerie found himself one down to Australian Mark Hensby with eight to play.

The Scot lost his early grip by bogeying the 14th and 15th and when Hensby, who had Nick Faldo’s former caddie Fanny Sunesson working for him, pitched to four feet on the 383-yard 16th the gap was down to one.

At the long 17th Hensby hooked two drives out of bounds and conceded the hole before three-putting the 531-yard last to lose that as well, but that was not the turning point that it appeared it might be.

Montgomerie bogeyed the 19th and 21st – Hensby chipped in there – and after holing from 15 feet to stay ahead on the next he missed from eight feet at the 22nd for yet another bogey.

Both made a mess of the 27th, but at the next the Melbourne golfer took the lead for the first time with an eight-foot birdie putt.

The fastest start of all came from Luke Donald against Bernhard Langer, the man who gave him his Ryder Cup debut last September.

Donald won four of the first six holes – and had to birdie only one of them as the 48-year-old German, who made his debut back in 1981, bogeyed the first, third and sixth.

Langer did recover and had an eight-foot chance on the 18th to be only two down. But after missing that he had further bogeys at the 19th and 20th to stand five down and it remained that way with 12 holes to go.

New Zealand’s US Open champion Michael Campbell led Australian Geoff Ogilvy by three after 24 – he had been six-up, but lost the next three – but Ogilvy’s compatriot Steve Elkington was faring much better. He led South African Tim Clark by five with nine to play.

Jose Maria Olazabal rolled in 35-foot birdie putts at the sixth and eighth to be three ahead of David Howell, but the Swindon golfer fought back and led by one after 22 and Paul McGinley also came from behind to be one-up on Thomas Bjorn after 24.

Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, who pipped McGinley for the BMW Championship title on the course in May, was four-up on South African Trevor Immelman after 21 holes.