Archer has mixed feelings after missing record

Phillip Archer today admitted: “I thought I had it,” after coming agonisingly close to the first 59 in the history of the European Tour.

Archer carded a nine-under-par 60 in the first round of the Celtic Manor Wales Open after his birdie putt on the 18th lipped out.

The 34-year-old from Warrington already had his arm partially raised in celebration when the six-foot putt caught the edge of the hole and span out.

Archer, whose previous lowest round on tour was 65, had birdied the second and third and bounced back from a bogey on the fourth with five more birdies in a row.

Further birdies on the 11th, 15th and 16th left him needing one more over the last two holes for the record, but after saving par on the 17th after finding rough off the tee his birdie attempt on 18 was struck just too hard.

“It’s a bitter-sweet moment,” admitted Archer, who finished a lowly 114th on the Order of Merit last year but finished third and sixth in consecutive events in Spain and Italy recently. “I played lovely all day and just wanted to give myself a chance on the last. I thought I had it.

“It was left-edge, nice and firm, but it was just a bit too firm. The save at the 17th gave me the momentum and I hit two lovely shots down the last.

“If I was being a little hard myself I should have tried to leave myself an uphill putt rather than downhill, but I read it perfectly and just hit it a little too hard.

“I was shaking a little bit, although not over the putt itself. I’ve worked a lot with psychologist Karl Morris on trying to deflect pressure as much as you can and I think I managed to do that.

“I didn’t really hit a bad shot out there, and even the bogey on the fourth I hit four good shots and made five!”

Archer’s superb effort eclipsed the previous course record – set last year by Alessandro Tadini and Miguel Angel Jimenez – by two shots, but was only enough for a one-shot lead over Sweden’s Robert Karlsson, whose round of 61 went almost unnoticed in the excitement.

Colin Montgomerie was two shots further back after a six-under 63, which ended the worst run of his career in emphatic fashion.

Montgomerie, who has missed the cut in seven of his last 10 tournaments, carded seven birdies and just one bogey, which he put down to skipping Wednesday’s pro-am to get a sneak preview of the Open venue at Hoylake.

“It’s the best score for a long, long time and gives me a lot of encouragement. It’s been a poor run of form by anyone’s standards.

“Not playing in the pro-am meant I didn’t know where I was going at the third and I made a mistake but that’s okay. Six under is a good effort. It’s coming back again. It would have been easy for me not to play tournaments but perhaps this is the best way, to play my way out of this run.

“Being at home thinking about it, that’s not the way I’ve ever done it.”

The 42-year-old Scot put his resurgence down to improved putting and added: “I started to accelerate through the putter again, trying to get back to the way I putted at the Open last year, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week now.

“I had seven birdies today and I had seven all week at Wentworth. That’s very encouraging.”

Ireland’s Paul McGinley, back in action just two weeks after an operation to remove a piece of floating bone from his knee, had to settle for a 69 after a double bogey five on his penultimate hole.

“My knee feels very strong, today was fine,” said the Dubliner, currently seventh in the Ryder Cup standings. “There was only a mental reaction in trusting to get through on my left side well enough but other than that it was fine.

“I hit 15 greens in regulation but shot level par which is always frustrating. I hit one bad shot on the eighth (which ended behind a bush) and paid a big price.”

US Open champion Michael Campbell fared even worse with a six over 75, which included a solitary birdie on the 18th.

But the Kiwi insisted there was no reason to be concerned just two weeks before his title defence at Winged Foot.

“I had seven birdies in the pro-am yesterday, felt great on the first tee today but it went pretty quickly,” Campbell said. “The yardage was in between clubs, sometimes I’d hit the club 10 yards further than it should go and I didn’t hole a putt all day until the last.

“It was bizarre but I can put this behind me pretty quickly. The beautiful thing is this game can change very quickly – look at Thomas Bjorn winning the Irish Open after a 78 in the first round.

“Hopefully I can go out tomorrow, shoot low and make the cut.”