Romero takes first day honours

It may be called the European Masters and it may be the first qualifying event for next year's European Ryder Cup team, but today was a day for non-Europeans at Crans-sur-Sierre.

Argentina's Eduardo Romero leads by one from New Zealander Michael Campbell and by two from South African Hennie Otto after the opening round of the £900,000 event high up in the Swiss Alps.

Helped by holing a 110-yard sand wedge for eagle at the sixth hole and chipping in for birdie on the 14th, 46-year-old Romero shot a seven-under-par 64 on the course where he had the last of his six European Tour victories six years ago.

Campbell, meanwhile, shrugged off 'flu symptoms to grab seven birdies and tour rookie Otto, a lowly 134th on the Order of Merit, had five successive birdies from the fifth and then eagled the 519-yard 15th after hitting a three wood to within eight feet of the flag.

Romero at the scenic 7th. Allsport.

The leading European is Swiss player Paolo Quirici, and he shares fourth place with Australian Brett Rumford on 67. Of the big names, defending champion Lee Westwood and Nick Faldo both returned two-under-par 69s and Darren Clarke, less than £40,000 behind Westwood at the top of the Order of Merit, turned a possible double bogey at the last into a birdie for a 68.

The Ulsterman's blocked drive was close to out of bounds and so he hit a provisional ball. The first was just in play, however, and he hit it to 15 feet and made the putt.

Clarke blamed that drive on his "foul temper", which had suddenly erupted after a series of misses on the controversial greens redesigned recently by Seve Ballesteros in order to toughen up what used to be the lowest-scoring course on the entire circuit.

"I was the consummate professional until the 15th but then I failed abysmally to keep my cool," he said. "It's not very clever to keep missing from three feet, but it's easy to do here."

Westwood complained last year of the fun being taken out of the week by the change in the greens and he was not about to change his mind after taking a bogey six at the long ninth, he was just short of the green in two, and then bogeying the 17th.

It is not very often that Elton John's name crops up at a golf event, but it did today when Faldo started discussing the world rankings. "I've never understood them from the time even when I was number one," he said after giving himself the chance to launch his bid for a Ryder Cup return in real style.

"Elton knows more about them than I do. Whenever I used to see him he says `you've gone up four places with 17.4 points' or whatever. I haven't a clue." The topic arose because Faldo's Cup "campaign", as he terms it, is a bit like an old jigsaw puzzle at the moment, he is not sure how many pieces he has.

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