Schwartzel & Olander lead with 63's

South African teenager Charl Schwartzel fired a nine-under-par 63 at the Canaries Spanish Open on Thursday as he took a giant step towards ending a 32-year-old record held by his compatriot Dale Hayes.

Hayes won the 1971 Spanish Open at the age of 18 years and 290 days and holds the record as the youngest winner on the European Tour.

Schwartzel will be 18 and 239 days old this Sunday and, coincidentally, after the first round he now has a golden chance of claiming the Spanish Open title to outdo Hayes.

Although he was caught late in the day by Swede Marten Olander, if Schwartzel continues in the vein of a blemish-free round that included two eagles and five birdies, he can clinch his maiden title after just nine European Tour events.

Olander and Schwartzel are a stroke better than a pack of nine, which includes the early front-runners, Scandinavians Soren Hansen and Jarmo Sandelin, whose course records the leaders broke by a shot.

Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, looking for his first win in this event since turning pro in the 1985 Spanish Open, is also one behind after eagling the last for a round of 64.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia, blaming a poor putting day, is already six strokes off the pace, although the way players are raining in birdies, that is no margin at all.

Garcia maintained that the real par of the course, with six par-fives offering birdie chances, was 67 and that a 59 was on the cards.

Schwartzel's brilliant back-nine -- the Golf Costa Adeje front nine -- took up only 29 strokes after a slow start.

The player with a glittering amateur career who chose golf over rugby and tennis, like his role model Ernie Els, proved the promise he showed in challenging strongly at last week's Algarve Portuguese Open before coming to grief with a final round 76.

However, Schwartzel did not impress himself entirely, certainly not until he had gone past the turn.

"Generally, my game was not very good," he said surprisingly. "I didn't drive the ball very long and missed fairways, but you can get away with it on this course.

"I missed a few putts on my first nine but my iron play was good and then my putter woke up.

"It's my first 29 and my best pro score. I had a 62 as an amateur at my home course Maccauvlei."

Having been introduced by his father to Els at 13 years old, Schwartzel, who practised with the triple major champion before the 2001 South African Open, is keen to follow his compatriot's footsteps and has studied videos of Els' swing in great depth.

Joint-leader Olander kept a card for the first time after finishing 99th in the European rankings and the 31-year-old, anxious to ensure another card this year, took time in America with his coach during US Masters week to tidy up his swing.

"My work didn't show last week but it is doing now," said the Swede, whose career-best 61 came two years ago on the Challenge Tour.

Olander has also had eight successive birdies on the Challenge Tour and felt he might need something special when he went out to play his first round.

"I saw quite a few guys on eight-under and one on nine-under so I just tried to get as many birdies as I could.

"Last week I was 17-over-par for four rounds so I thought I'd try and get that back this week. I think there's a possibility of a 59 this week -- and I hope it will be me."

Seve Ballesteros outdid Garcia by a stroke with a 68, but the five-times major champion, playing in his 30th consecutive Spanish Open, may still have to work hard to make his second cut of the year.

Only 14 players out of a field of 156 were over par and the cut threatens to comfortably break the European Tour record of five-under-par if the weather does not intervene.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page