Green takes first day honours

Australian Richard Green opened up with a 65 for the second time in successive tournaments to earn a one-shot lead at the Scottish PGA Championship Thursday.

A seven-under-par return for Green took him a stroke better than Swede Fredrik Andersson, who bogeyed the last after losing a ball with his second shot.

On a congested leaderboard, 11 players shot 67s, among them tournament favorite Adam Scott of Australia, who eagled the last to justify his billing as top world-ranked player at Gleneagles.

Double-major winner Sandy Lyle, 44, was among 11 players with 68s.

Green posted his first 65 at Celtic Manor two weeks ago but, as his putting deteriorated, he eventually slipped to only tie for ninth place behind winner Paul Lawrie.

That was largely to do with going out in the last group twice Sunday over the soaking Celtic Manor greens in a 36-hole finale, he maintained.

This time the 31-year-old Melbourne professional, who beat Greg Norman and Ian Woosnam to win the Dubai Desert Classic in 1997, expects his performance on the dry and true Gleneagles greens to stand up better.

"Since the (British) Open I've started to putt pretty nicely," said Green.

"I started to line up my body more with the hole, rather than line the putt up and that has freed everything, allowed me to stroke the ball naturally.

"Fortunately this week the greens are nice and true.

"My first round at Celtic Manor was pretty much the same as this, a solid, deliberate, day in a great frame of mind.

"As the week got on in Wales, though, it was hard to keep your putting going.

"On the last day my putting let me down but I spoke to my caddie and we worked out that it wasn't really much to do with my stroke or me.

"It was just that the greens were so rough with all the traffic on them all day, and us being in the last group, it was in the lap of the gods whether you knocked in the putts or not."

Defending champion Paul Casey said the bizarre loss of a ball on a fairway had not only cost him a double-bogey but drained his morale to cause him further dropped shots coming home as he slipped to a 72.

The 25-year-old Englishman was challenging strongly in the first round at four-under-par, only a stroke off the lead at that time, when he thought he had lost his ball on the 2nd, his 11th hole.

After a five-minute search, the maximum allowed under the Rules of Golf, Casey headed back to play another ball, taking a one-shot penalty.

However, on his way back to play the shot, he discovered his ball lying in a fairway drain cavity. A plastic drain cover had become dislodged and his ball had gone to ground in the drain.

"You shouldn't lose a ball in the middle of a fairway with quite a few people watching," said Casey.

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