O'Hern leads at wet Wentworth

Nick O'Hern led an early Australian charge with a 65 on a shortened opening day of the Volvo PGA championship on Friday.

Torrential rain eventually led to an abandonment of play with more than half the field still to complete 18 holes and several yet to start.

Left-hander O'Hern literally set the early pace in the European Tour's flagship event, going out in the first group at seven o'clock to shoot his seven-under-par round.

Fellow Australian Richard Green and Swede Robert Karlsson finished two shots back on 67 and two more Australians, Peter O'Malley and Geoff Ogilvy, were in a group of eight on four under.

Lee Westwood, seeking back-to-back wins after last week's victory over Tiger Woods in the Tournament Players' Championship in Hamburg, finished six off the pace.

Colin Montgomerie, chasing a third successive victory in this event, was two under after seven holes when, after a day of unrelenting rain, the greenkeepers finally gave up their battle with the elements and called a halt.

O'Hern, who writes and throws right-handed, climbed out of bed at 4.45 and then went out to bag seven birdies.

"That's about as good as I can play round here and I'm very pleased," he said after finishing with a flourish by holing from 15 feet for a birdie on the 18th. "It's been in the pipeline for a few weeks."

Green also had a bogey-free card after a solid round and put his success down to a change of practice technique.

"I'd spent 20 years practising my swing but felt I wasn't getting anywhere," said the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic champion.

"Now I'm concentrating on finding ways to play the game better, to score lower. I was expecting a perfect swing to get me birdies but it doesn't work that way."

Both players, who travel and socialise together when in Europe, said there was a group of young Australian players coming up behind them, products of the country's golfing academies.

"They are all very competitive," said Green."

Westwood got off to the worst possible start with bogeys on the first two holes and another on the ninth.

Three birdies on the back nine represented something of a recovery but he was far from happy with his performance.

"I played awful," he said. "That is as easy as Wentworth can play and I wasn't surprised to see a 65."

Montgomerie also had a bad start with a bogey on the short second but solid putting earned him successive birdies at the fourth, fifth and sixth.

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