Warren swings in action after chandelier accident

Scottish golfer Marc Warren was back playing at the Seve Trophy in Ireland today after what was literally a shattering experience at the team hotel.

Practising his swing in his room after losing his opening match with Colin Montgomerie, last season’s European Tour Rookie of the Year smashed a chandelier above him.

The glass showering down on him cut his head, both arms and, most worrying of all, caused a nasty deep gash across his stomach requiring a trip to hospital.

“It was about a centimetre wide and looked about a centimetre deep,” said Warren. “I looked in the mirror and I was covered in blood.

“I rang Bradley Dredge because I was supposed to be having dinner with him, then Monty came along and (captain) Nick Faldo called.

“A car took me to hospital, although the driver stalled three times, and I had butterfly stitches in my cuts and had it dressed and covered.”

Returning to the hotel around 10pm, Warren found he had fused the lights and so had to pack his things in the dark before being transferred to another room.

Unsure how sore he would be on waking up this morning, the 26-year-old was relieved to discover he was not too bad and even began with two birdies against French pair Raphael Jacquelin and Gregory Havret.

However, after five holes mostly played in rain and in front of another tiny crowd, Warren and Montgomerie were two down.

Before teeing off, Warren was even able to joke about what he called “an adventurous evening”, saying: “I was using a five-iron – it should have been a six because I would have missed it.”

Warren was one of Faldo’s wild card picks for the match, but he and Montgomerie lost three and one to Swedes Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson in their opening game as Britain and Ireland fell 3-2 behind.

It looked like being another closely-contested fourball session, with Continental Europe up in two, Britain and Ireland up in two and the other all square.

Welshman Bradley Dredge and England’s Phillip Archer, winners on the first day, were two up on Hanson and Karlsson after six and Oliver Wilson and Simon Dyson one up on Danes Thomas Bjorn and Soren Hansen after four.

However, Nick Dougherty and Graeme Storm lost the first hole to Mikko Ilonen and Markus Brier, while the home side’s top two ranked players, Justin Rose and Paul Casey, were level after two with Spaniards Miguel Angel Jimenez and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.