The Open 2011 round one – live! | Scott Murray

• Click refresh to update or tick the auto-update button • Don’t bother emailing in, my account is jiggered • Marvel at Paul Lawrie’s hole-by-hole guide to Sandwich • Click here for the official Open leaderboard • And here for more news, analysis and video highlights 10.45am: Donald makes his first mistake of the day, pushing his tee shot at 6, but though his ball teases with a greenside bunker, it stays out and gives him a very good chance of getting up and down. 10.40am: Another par for McIlroy on 6, a par for Donald on the tricky 5th. There’s not much in the way of movement going on; today will be all about not falling out of contention, rather than making the running. The weather’s set to improve tomorrow, only to get worse again at the weekend. Oh, hold on, Miguel Angel Jimenez has just carded his second birdie of the day, this one on 9, to join Calcavecchia in second place. 10.35am: A birdie from Thomas Bjorn on 12, to give him the sole leadership. Calcavecchia is the only man still at-2. The course isn’t giving away much today. The weather’s expected to ease off a bit in the afternoon, which will be music to the ears of Lee Westwood (2.10pm), Graeme McDowell and Bubba Watson (1.43pm), Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen and Phil Mickelson (2.21pm) and perhaps even SANDY LYLE (12.26pm). 10.30am: Ishikawa is having something of a nightmare so far. He’s +2 through 4, and has just sliced a long iron into pure rubbish on the next hole. On 5, McIlroy requires a ten-footer to save his par. He’s escaped bogeys on the last two holes now. 10.20am: Donald had more than 12 feet to go, to be fair, and so his birdie putt didn’t drop. That’s a par, though; he’s -1 through 4. Garcia can’t save his, sending a hot first putt a good eight feet past the hole, then failing to save his par. And so it begins. He hit a wonderful tee shot, only to overcook his wedge approach, and bugger it up from there on in. How many majors would this guy have if he could putt? He’d have challenged McIlroy for the US Open last month, for a start. 10.15am: Donald has started very nicely indeed; another lovely iron, to 12 feet or so, into 4. Garcia looks to have followed him, but his ball bites at the front of the green and stays put. He’ll have two putts for par, but there’s some distance to travel. Neither McIlroy nor Els can find the green on 5. 10.10am: Trying to keep the ball on the 5th fairway is like attempting to land a block of ice halfway up a wall made of salt. Els and McIlroy see their drives take idiotic kicks into the right-hand rough after landing their balls pretty much in the middle of the fairway. Donald makes his birdie putt on 4; Sergio has to settle for par. As for Britain’s Martin Laird – you’ll see why in a second – he’s just double bogeyed 9 to fall off the top of the leaderboard in spectacular style. 10.07am: Par for McIlroy on 4; he’s +2 through the hole. He dealt with a tricky situation very calmly there. Maybe that’ll give him some positive momentum. 10.05am: Ha! John Daly’s out on the course, in a ludicrous luminous orange hat, compensating for the fact that his egregious breeks are currently covered by some sober-coloured waterproofs. He rakes in a Fowleresque right-to-left breaker from off the back of the green, to open with a birdie. John Daly! 10am: McIlroy drives his ball into deep rough down the left at 4. But from a terrible position, and with a crosswind making a nuisance of itself, he knocks perhaps the shot of the day so far to 12 feet. He’s left with a fairly straight putt up the green, though it’s by no means a nailed-on birdie. Even so, to get out of trouble from there was very decent work. Here’s the leaderboard on the hour: -2 Calcavecchia (13) Storm (13) Bjorn (9) Laird (8) -1 Jacobson (10) Dyson (9) Moore (9) Jimenez (7) Goosen (2) Hansen (2) 9.57am: On 3, great tee shots from Garcia, to 20 feet, and in particular Donald, who knocks his 5-iron pin high, leaving him a ten-foot birdie chance. Todd Hamilton’s dropped another shot; he’s now +5. Your rescue club isn’t going to get you out of this one, Todd, is it. 9.55am: Scottish golf is in a bit of a state at the moment, even if Paul Lawrie remains the last home winner of this championship. But here’s Martin Laird, the only Scot on the US tour, who follows up a birdie on the par-five 7th with a majestic approach to 8; he knocks in a three-foot birdie putt to join the leaders on -2. 9.50am: From the back of 3, McIlroy leaves himself a good 12 feet short of the hole. He can’t make the par putt; he’s +2. This is a rocky start from the US Open champion. Speaking of hopeless starts, here’s 2004 champion Todd Hamilton. Remember him? Of course you don’t. He’s +4 after 10, having gone out in 39 strokes. Meanwhile Bjorn’s Sandwich nightmares begin again: the leader misses a two-foot tiddler on 9 to drop back to -2. 9.45am: McIlroy’s tee shot into the par-three 3rd lands reasonably close to the pin but takes a hard bounce and springs off the back of the green. He’ll do well to save par. Fowler and Els aren’t too close either. Donald looks in the mood, though; despite pushing his tee shot into heavy rough down 2, he’s found the middle of the green, getting a surprising amount of spin from that filth. 9.40am: Fowler has to knock in a testing ten-foot par putt on 2. He’s due a proper tilt at a major championship. Being paired with McIlroy, very much his contemporary, will concentrate the mind. Rory and Ernie pop in for pars too. Calcavecchia has responded to his bogey on 11 with a birdie at 12; he’s back on -2. On the BBC – and I’m very happy to say I only caught the second half of this snippet of commentary – Peter Alliss has just mentioned “a Colonel in the clubhouse bashing one off”. There are generational issues at play here, I am sure of it. I have to convince myself that’s the case. 9.35am: Garcia makes par on 1. Donald gets up and down from the back without much fuss; he’ll be in the mood after a superlative show at Castle Stuart in the Scottish Open. Ishikawa bogeys, though, after making a pig’s lug of his pitch from the right of the green, the ball barely getting up onto the putting surface. These greens are lightening fast, incidentally. Graeme Storm has drained one from off the front of the 12th; he’s -2. 9.32am: Bjorn is doing his level best to chase those demons away: he birdies 8 for sole ownership of the lead. On 1, Garcia chips marvellously from off the back of the green to a couple of feet. A sure knock-in par for anyone else; anything between par and quadruple bogey for Sergio and his Special Putter. 9.30am: The breeze is picking up. Garcia’s approach to the 1st is down in Fowler Country. As is Donald’s. Ishikawa attempts to bounce in a Scottish wedge, but his ball takes a huge kick to the right and rolls off the green. They’ll all have tests to save par. On 7, Alvaro Quiros joins Bjorn on -2, reaching the front of the par-five hole in two, then rolling in a huge right-to-left breaker that takes an age to drop, but eventually sneaks in. His playing partner Ryan Moore picks up his second birdie of the day to join him. Calcavecchia isn’t leading any more, however, having dropped a shot at 11. 9.25am: Back up on the tee, Luke Donald and Ryo Ishikawa clack booming tee shots down the middle. And here comes Sergio! What special nonsense awaits today from our slapstick hero? He starts as he probably won’t go on, creaming a perfect 3-wood straight down the fairway. Meanwhile on the green, McIlroy prods an uncertain par putt at the hole, the ball staying high on the left. He opens with a bogey five, which wasn’t in the script. But then the young man from Holywood rarely bothers to follow scripts. 9.20am: What a birdie putt on the 1st from Fowler, who rakes in a 20-yard monster from just off the back of the green! What a start to his tournament. McIlroy’s ball was just in front of Fowler’s, but he doesn’t learn much from the schooling, setting his putt out to the left, where it stays. He’ll have a tester coming back. 9.15am: Fowler and McIlroy both find the middle of the green at the 1st, but they’re not getting much in the way of spin from their positions in the rough, and their balls bounce through the green and fall off the back. They’ll both do well to get up and down from there. Els, from the middle of the fairway, can get a bit of bite with his approach and gives himself a birdie chance from 15 feet or so. On 7, Bjorn sends his third to eight feet, and rolls the birdie putt in; he’s got a share of the early lead with Mark Calcavecchia at -2. Memories of 2003 for Bjorn? If so, they’ll pretty much all be bad ones. 9.10am: “On the tee from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy.” A huge cheer, pretty much as you’d expect. His first shot in competitive golf since rolling the ball into the cup on the 18th at Congressional, a 3-wood, is clapped down the track, only taking a kick right off the undulating fairway and into the semi-rough. He’ll be fine from there. His playing partner Els – who towers over him as they walk down the hole chatting warmly – is straight down the middle. Rickie Fowler completes the group, and he’s hit a screamer that’s just leaked a bit left. Conditions today: Blustery, but not preposterously so. Unlike 2003, the rough is said to be perfectly playable. Sandwich should offer the field quite a test, but nothing beyond reason. So, some of the notable early tee off times. Paul Casey and Ben Curtis have just gone out. Luke Donald, Ryo Ishikawa and Sergio Garcia are off at 9.20am. John Daly will begin his charge to -6 by the turn, before finishing the day +8, at 9.53am. And, of course, Ernie Els and Rickie Fowler are just about to tee off, along with a certain young lad from Holywood. The Open: It is on! The last time the Open was held here, Thomas Bjorn should have won. Should have, but didn’t. He held a three-shot lead on the 15th tee; four holes later, all hope was gone, the centrepiece of his meltdown a thundering nervous breakdown in a bunker at 16. Curtis was the champion, having only dropped 978 strokes over the last nine holes. What a hero. Anyway, Bjorn has started well this year; a late qualifier, he’s birdied the 2nd and after six holes is -1, a shot behind the early leader, the 1989 champ Mark Calcavecchia. So, then, a very early leaderboard at 9am: -2 Mark Calcavecchia (9) -1 Thomas Bjorn (6) Simon Dyson (6) Ryan Moore (5) Hiroyuki Fujita (3) Welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the 140th Open Championship, from Royal St George’s, Sandwich, Kent. Arguably the four greatest days in the entire sporting year lay ahead of us. Which will only be spoilt at the very end when a US journeyman comes ambling out of the pack at the very last minute and makes off with the spoils. You know how this works. I’ve still not quite recovered from 2009 yet, when Stewart Cink ruined everyone’s dreams, and by definition, their lives. Welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the 140th Open Championship, from Royal St George’s, Sandwich, Kent, where some of the greats of the game have lifted the Auld Claret Jug. Harry Vardon. Walter Hagen. Bobby Locke. Sandy Lyle. Greg Norman. Bill, er, Rogers. Ben Cu… let’s start again. The Open 2011 The Open Golf Scott Murray guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.