Big name carnage at Open first round

Carnoustie returned to the Open championship circuit on Thursday with a welcome which was about as friendly as a Glasgow Kiss.

The horror stories went on and on as the world's top golfers were made to look to the untrained eye like humble hackers on the windswept Scottish links. Not one of the 156 starters could break par.

Mark O'Meara slumped to a 12-over-par 83, one of the worst rounds by a defending major champion this century. Even when he chipped in for birdie at the last not a single smile crossed his weather-beaten 42-year-old face.

Tom Watson, who was nine under par when he triumphed on the same links when they last staged the event in 1975, had an 82.

Tony Jacklin and Sandy Lyle, two of Britain's three former champions in the field, and three-time winner Seve Ballesteros all failed to break 80 as well, while world number two David Duval and last year's teenage hero Justin Rose did so with only a stroke to spare.

Then there was Sergio Garcia. Reckoned to be in with a great chance of becoming the youngest winner since Young Tom Morris in 1870, the 19-year-old Spanish star began with a triple bogey seven and finished with an 89. And even he was not last.

Thai golfer Prayad Marksaeng and American Tom Gillis both double-bogeyed the last for 91 and 90 respectively.

At the end of the day, of course, somebody had to lead. And that man was little-known Australian Rodney Pampling.

Like Marksaeng and Gillis, the 30-year-old is playing an Open for the first time and, teeing off in the second match at 7.25am, parred the first 11 holes.

That was good and, after a bogey at the 12th, he holed from 10 feet for birdie at the short 13th and made a 25-footer for eagle on the downwind 515-yard 15th.

Further bogeys came on the 15th and 17th, but a level par 71 remained a superb effort. One of the rounds of the year, in fact.

Nearly nine hours later it looked as if the day might belong to Warrington 44-year-old Derrick Cooper. He was one under with four to play, but then bogeyed the 15th and took seven on the 459-yard 17th.

Cooper drove into the Barry Burn, then found gorse and had to sink a 20-footer "just" to drop three shots. Another went on the last for a 75.

The leading Briton instead was Aberdeen's Paul Lawrie, no stranger to such conditions. His 73 left the 30-year-old in joint fourth place.

Lyle said after his 85: "I think it's just a joke. It has probably set me back six months in all the hard work I've been doing getting my swing organised. It's just torn it apart."

Hugh Campbell, chairman of the championship committee, has insisted all week that the powers-that-be were powerless to prevent the rough - or the wind, of course - but Lyle added: "They were fertilising the rough and watering it when I was here playing about two weeks ago."

Campbell said: "It gives me no pleasure to watch good players scoring these scores. The pin placings are as easy as they could be.

"The best players in the world are playing the most difficult course in the world - and at the moment the course is winning." And how.

Virtually to a man the field agreed that the course, at 7,361 yards the longest in Open history, was the toughest they had ever had to tackle.

The wind was nothing that has not been seen before, but the combination of wind and rough was simply "vicious", to use the word of US Open champion Payne Stewart after he matched Rose's 79.

Colin Montgomerie, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els were highly satisfied with 74s for once in their lives, Montgomerie especially so after so many Open nightmares (five missed cuts in the last seven years) and after standing three over after eight.

"Par does not mean a damn thing. The average score is nearly 79 and that says it all," he commented.

Woods had an unexpected embrace from a scantily-clad girl before putting on the 18th green, but never tangled with the deep rough once and remains a strong favourite, especially with some players he would see as big threats having already become casualties.

Pampling, married in April to a sports psychologist who helps him try to get his own mind in order, said: "My goal for the week was top 10.

"I don't mind the wind. It's a challenge. It makes you think a lot harder."

Joint second on 72 are double Masters champion Bernhard Langer, who partnered Pampling, and Scott Dunlap, who has never won on the US Tour, while resuming tomorrow alongside Lawrie on two over are five more Americans - 1997 winner Justin Leonard, Dudley Hart, Len Mattiace, Steve Pate and Hal Sutton - and 45-year-old Zimbabwean Mark McNulty.

Montgomerie said: "This is the best I've felt going into a second day of an Open, but that's not saying much.

"A lot of good players have been blown away, but I think last week's win at Loch Lomond has relaxed me into trying to enjoy this more than in previous years.

"It was a day more for courage than skill and hanging on in there. It seems crazy, but I will take three more 74s."

Lee Westwood was only one over with three to go, but bogeyed the sixth, double-bogeyed the 459-yard 17th and dropped another at the last for a 76.

His brother-in-law Andrew Coltart finished even worse after leading at two under. He let five strokes go in the last four to be on 74.

Three-time champion Nick Faldo, now 189th in the world, looked like being another calamity case when he turned in 43. But he matched Pampling's inward 35 to be in a group on 78 which also includes Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal.

As for 16-year-old Surrey qualifier Zane Scotland, subject of so much attention after becoming one of the youngest-ever players in the championship, he shot 82. It contained triple bogey sevens on the fifth and 18th.

Duval has already made up his mind about Carnoustie's future.

"I don't think the Open will be coming back here," he said. "It's different and it's nice to experience, but you hope only once.

"If the average player had to play out there he'd probably quit the game. A lot of pros too."

The most anybody reached under par was Swede Patrik Sjoland. But from three under after four he returned a 74.

The field ended the day, collectively, an incredible 1,139 over par.