Peugeot Open de España
El Prat
Barcelona, Spain
23rd - 26th April 1998

Par 72 Prize Money £550,000

First Round Report

First Round Scores

Three in tie for first round lead

By Mark Garrod, PA Sport

Barcelona, Spain, 23rd April 1998 - Australian left-hander Greg Chalmers, American Jay Townsend and Spaniard Jose Manuel Carriles shared the first-round lead on a day of low scoring at the Peugeot Spanish Open in Barcelona.

But the chance of 18-year-old Sergio Garcia becoming the first amateur ever to win a European tour event remains alive.

Tipped by Seve Ballesteros as good enough to beat the 150 professionals in the field at El Prat, current British boy champion Garcia proved the point with a six-under-par 66.

It left him only two off the pace and in joint sixth place in the race for the £91,660 top prize - a cheque he will not be able to accept.

"I've come to win, but also to get experience," said Garcia, who has lost count of the number of amateur victories he already has to his name.

"Between 70 and 80," he guessed.

Garcia birdied four of his first five holes and finished in spectacular style with an eagle three on the 490-yard ninth. It was playing downwind, and after a 340-yard drive he needed only an eight-iron for his second and put it to 12 feet.

Another teenage amateur, Alejandro Larrazabal, also fired a 66 as more than 100 players - two-thirds of the field - broke par.

Chalmers, winner of the Australasian Players' Championship in December, had two eagles in his 64, the lowest round of his life.

The first came on the 507-yard 10th with a two-iron to 18 feet and after sinking a 35-foot birdie putt on the par three next the 24-year-old hit a six-iron to six feet at the 497-yard 12th.

Chalmers, from Perth, had to drop onto the European mini-tour last season after finishing only 136th on the main circuit in 1996 and said: "Playing in places like Russia and Turkey is not all peaches and cream. It's tough, but the rewards are there if you can gut it out."

Townsend has been playing in Europe since 1985 and has still to taste success. His best chance was when he was lying second in the Catalan Open near Barcelona five years ago, but then the last round was cancelled because of snow!

In bright sunshine this time Townsend packed nine birdies into his round and would have held the outright lead but for going into sand on the opening hole for a bogey five.

Carriles had eight birdies as he began his attempt to emulate Frenchman Thomas Levet last week - by winning while not holding a European tour card. He, Chalmers and Townsend lead Swindon 22-year-old David Howell and Frenchman Jean Van de Velde by a stroke.

Jose Maria Olazabal and Ballesteros matched Garcia's eagle on the ninth. Olazabal's five-iron to four feet was for a 66 as well, but three-time champion Ballesteros had to be content with a 69.

Ian Woosnam is on the same mark, while defending champion Mark James, wearing strapping on his arm to ease a tendinitis problem, birdied the last for a 68.

American Bob May managed only 72 but still had a day to remember after holing in one at the short 17th and winning himself a Peugeot 106.

Swede Joakim Haeggman will not forget the round either. His ball was stuck up a tree on the 14th, but television crew nearby offered him the use of a ladder.

The rules allowed him to use it providing he did not delay play. Haeggman duly climbed up and was able to identify the ball but he could not play it. It still enabled him to drop under penalty on the spot rather than return to the tee, but he double-bogeyed the hole and eventually finished with a 69.

Levet, shock winner of the Cannes Open on Sunday, was not so lucky. There was no ladder nearby when his wild drive on the 12th stayed up in the branches as well. Despite the seven on the hole, however, he stayed in the hunt for back-to-back victories with a 68.