More troubles for Daly

John Daly found himself nine shots off the lead after just four holes of his opening round at the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship today.

Daly ran up a triple-bogey eight on the 18th at Hoylake last week, hitting two balls out of bounds to miss the cut by two shots in the British Open Championship.

The former British Open champion, third in the Players Championship last year, unfortunately carried on where he left off in similarly hot conditions at Gut Kaden this morning.

Starting on the 10th, Daly bogeyed the 11th and then ran up a double-bogey six on the next. Another bogey on the 13th left the American four over par after four holes and nine behind early leader Gregory Havret.

Havret, winner of the Italian Open in 2001, had picked up five birdies to race to the turn in 31, although that was only one clear of double US Open champion Retief Goosen.

Goosen, the world number five, birdied the 12th and 13th and then eagled the par-five 15th to move to four under par.

Low scoring looked like being the order of the day on a course playing much shorter than its 7,290 yards, with 34 players already under par.

Lee Westwood was two under after five holes while Padraig Harrington, who also missed the cut last week, was one under after six. Defending champion Niclas Fasth was level par after five.