Miserable start for McDowell in Wales

Defending champion Graeme McDowell was one of the biggest casualties today as Celtic Manor – scene of so much glory for him last year – turned into a course of carnage.

“Welcome to the torture chamber,” said television commentator Wayne Riley as McDowell, one off the lead entering the third round of the Saab Wales Open, dropped an amazing eight shots in the first seven holes.

A stiff wind and some tough pin placings wreaked havoc, but the man who defends the US Open the week after next suffered more than most as he battled with a hook.

He was in two bunkers for an opening double bogey, dropped more shots at the second and fourth, then went from a rough into a ditch at the 433-yard fifth.

The agony was not over, however, for McDowell, who last month crashed out of the lead at the Players Championship with a closing 79.

He hooked out of bounds on the short seventh and did well to salvage a double-bogey five with his second ball.

At one over par he had slumped to 28th spot and was seven adrift of Sweden’s Alex Noren, whose own problems came on the greens – three-putt bogeys at the fourth and sixth.

Noren was one ahead of charging Dane Anders Hansen, who had five birdies in nine holes from the fourth.

One further back were Ryder Cup player Peter Hanson of Sweden and Frenchman Victor Dubuisson, but the last five groups were an incredible 36 over for the opening seven holes.

Welshman Jamie Donaldson, tied for third overnight, had two bogeys and a double and England’s Paul Broadhurst followed three bogeys and a double with a quadruple bogey eight at the sixth.