Garcia makes poor start

Sergio Garcia and Michael Campbell were wishing they could start all over again within an hour of the European Open getting under way at the London Club today.

Garcia, runner-up to Ross Fisher last year and the current world number four, began his bid to go one better with a double bogey six on the 426-yard 10th.

But that was nothing compared to what happened to 2005 US Open champion Campbell at the long 12th. He lost two balls off the tee and ended the hole with a quadruple bogey nine.

Both have been struggling for form lately, with Garcia admitting that the break-up of his relationship with Greg Norman’s daughter Morgan-Leigh affected him badly.

His opening drive hooked towards the lake and although it narrowly avoided the water he was in such deep rough that his first thrash moved the ball only a few inches and his next was merely a hack back onto the fairway.

The 29-year-old Spaniard was paired with Fisher and Henrik Stenson and while Stenson opened with two pars the defending champion – he won by seven after starting with a course record 63 – failed to get up and down from a bunker at the short 11th.

Early pacesetters were England’s Gary Lockerbie, South African Thomas Aiken and Peter Hanson, the Swede who on Monday won a place in next month’s US Open by holing-in-one at the second hole of a play-off in the European qualifier at Walton Heath.

Hanson’s two at the 208-yard 11th must have felt quite tame in comparison.

Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Irish Open amateur winner Shane Lowry – making his professional debut – were among the later starters.