Bjorn back with a bang

Thomas Bjorn, playing his first tournament for 10 weeks, was only a shot off the lead after 12 holes of his first round in the Quinn Insurance British Masters at The Belfry today.

Out of action since the Scottish Open in early July – he suffered a shoulder injury the previous week – the Dane returned on the course where he won his second Ryder Cup cap six years ago.

At three under par with six holes to play, Bjorn, chairman of the committee that will next week start discussing the Ryder Cup captain for 2010, was on the heels of Australian Marcus Fraser and Indian Jeev Milkha Singh.

Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell, the only two members of last week’s Ryder Cup side in the field, were among the later starters, but Darren Clarke, controversially omitted in favour of Ian Poulter, was playing with Singh.

However, the Ulsterman had a hat-trick of bogeys from the 11th, ran up a six on the long 17th and turned in a three-over 39.

Not that Clarke’s six was the highest score of the morning. Chris Wood, famous for finishing fifth in The Open as an amateur in July, smashed three balls out of bounds at the 384-yard 13th and took a sextuple-bogey 10.

Fraser lies 115th on the Order of Merit and with only the top 115 retaining their cards at the end of the season, his start was of the highest importance.

The 30-year-old, winner of the 2003 Russian Open, birdied the second, third, fifth and eighth, while Singh birdied four of his first eight holes and then mixed two more birdies with two bogeys around the turn.