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Robertson takes early advantage

Scotland’s Dean Robertson has stolen the thunder of Australians Nick O’Hern and Greg Norman with a late charge to the top on the opening day of the $1.75m Heineken Classic at the Vines outside of Perth.

Robertson shot a seven-under 65 to claim the outright lead by a stroke from O’Hern and Norman, with early pacesetters Scott Laycock, Shane Tait, Thomas Bjorn and Pierre Fulke another stroke back in fourth.

Spaniard Ignacio Garrido is eighth after a 68, while eight players are tied for ninth on minus three, among them defending champion Michael Campbell, local Wayne Smith and Victorian Richard Green.

Englishman Justin Rose, Craig Parry, 1999 champion Jarrod Moseley and Ford Open winner Peter Lonard all carded 70’s, while Swede Fredrik Jacobson, Kiwis David Smail and Michael Long and NSW’s Scott Gardiner all carded 71’s for a share of 26th.

Robertson birdied his third hole of the day – the 12th – before a run of five pars that was broken by a run of another three birdies in four holes by the third hole.

Dean Robertson lines up a putt on the way to a first day lead. Allsport.

After making a succession of fine par saves from four to seven, Robertson added his fifth birdie of the day at eight, and then snatched the lead from under Norman and O’Hern’s noses with a sensational approach at the ninth that bounced, spun back and rolled in for his eagle.

“The golf game is still a little bit rough at this time of year, but you’ve got to expect that,” said Robertson, who also led after round one of the South African Open two weeks ago with a 62.

“With the wind blowing here and the greens drying out everyday, patience is the key around here, if you play well you get rewarded. Yo don’t want to be doing anything silly around here because you can easily shoot a 78, no problem.”

Norman had a quiet start birdieing the third and fifth holes to turn two-under, and despite another birdie at the 10th, was still minus two after 14 with a bogey at the 13th hole.

But the Shark then unleashed a burst of birdie, birdie, par, eagle over the last four holes, including his approach to the last which bounced off the flagstick.

“I knew coming in here I had a good feeling about it, and now with the first round under the belt you’ve got to keep it going,” Norman said. “There’s no question that coming out late today was a tough order.”

“Sometimes coming out on a tough golf course with the wind blowing and you see five-under on the leaderboard sometimes you have a tendency to push yourself but today I didn’t do that.”

“I actually thought a 69 would have been a very good score today the way the conditions were and as it turned out I did better than that, so all in all I’m very happy, with my feelings, the result and the way it is right now.”

O’Hern had a slow start, bogeying the third to slip to plus one after four holes, but a run of four birdies in five holes took him to three-under by the turn, and back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13 saw him claim a share of the lead.

A bogey at the 15th threatened to cost him a few places on the board, but birdies at the 16th and 18th allowed him to firstly draw level with the earlier leaders and then claim his share of first with Norman.

“I played pretty well last week without much result from how I strike the ball and that continued on today, I hit a lot of good shots, and you needed to in this wind. The quality of the ball striking was very important,” O’Hern said.

“If you mishit a shot the wind was going to take it another 10 yards from where it normally would. I hit a lot of good shots and fortunately made some putts, whereas last week I didn’t.”

Starting from the 10th, Bjorn collected birdies at the 10th, 15th and 17th holes to turn three-under and a couple behind early pacesetter Fulke, before sandwiching further birdies at two and nine around a run of seven successive pars.

Fulke birdied three of his first six holes (the 11th, 14th and 15th holes) to move to three-under, and when he added an eagle at the 18th, had reached the turn two clear on minus five.

A bogey at the first, followed by seven consecutive pars, stalled his momentum, but the beaten Accenture Match Play finalist continued to sho a liking for Australian conditions with a closing birdie.

After going out in 33 with birdies at the fifth, sixth and eighth holes, Tait added further birdies at the 10th, 13th and 14th holes to momentarily claim the outright lead. Bogeys at 15 and 16 threatened to derail his round, but he bounced back with a birdie at the last to join Bjorn and Fulke on five-under.

Laycock birdied his first hole, the 10th, but gave the shot back with a bogey at 17 to be even after eight. A burst of eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie saw him leap to the top of the leaderboard, but he had to be content with a share of the lead after parring his last eight holes.

Campbell made a slow start, dropping to one-over through six with a birdie and a pair of bogeys, but an eagle at 18 and birdies at three and five brought him right back into contention.

Green birdied two of his first three holes on the way to adding an eagle, a birdie and two bogeys after that, while Smith picked up early birdies at 12 and 18, and improved another stroke overall on the way to his 69 with three more birdies, and two bogeys.

More than 20 players are tied for 40th place on level par after rounds of 72, among them Adam Scott, Brett Rumford and Lucas Parsons, while Peter O’Malley, Andre Stolz and Terry Price are equal 65th after 73’s.

Nick Faldo, Patrik Sjoland and James McLean all made poor starts with 74’s, Faldo saving an even worse score with an eagle at the last, while Steve Conran and Phillip Price are joint 105th on plus three after 75’s.

Wayne Riley and Wayne Grady both had disappointing rounds, finishing with 81’s, while Phil Tataurangi (82) and Kim Felton (84) both have little chance of making the weekend cut.

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