FILIPE-LIMA AND JACQUELIN SHARE LEAD
ON 65 IN BMW INTERNATIONAL OPEN:
FORSYTH (68) IS LEADING SCOT

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE

A spectacular last hole eagle helped José Filipe-Lima enjoy not only a reversal of recent fortune, but also a share of the first round lead in the BMW International Open with Raphaël Jacquelin.
The 25 year old Portugese player has missed the last six cuts on the European Tour to find himself languishing at 216th on the Order of Merit and when he began with a bogey 5 at Golfclub München Eichenried, he could have been forgiven for thinking his disappointing run was about to continue.
But nothing could have been further from the truth as, after that, the winner of the 2004 Aa St Omer Open was flawless, carding four birdies and an eagle 3 at the sixth to go along with his one at the 18th to finish the day on seven under par 65.
It gave Lima and Jacquelin a one-shot lead over Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, looking for his second victory of the season after his win in the Telecom Italia Open, surprise packet of the opening day, Frenchman Marc Farry and England’s Paul Broadhurst.
World No 5 Ernie Els and Niclas Fasth, fourth in last week’s US Open Championship, lurk menacingly on five under par after respective opening 67s.
“I hit a very bad drive on the first hole but in a funny way I think that helped relax me a little bit because I was a little stressed after the way I have been playing,” said Lima.
“I changed some things on my swing and I started the year very badly, missing a lot of cuts – a good round today is very good for me and my confidence. Obviously there is a long way to go until Sunday but I will try to keep playing like that.”
FRONT-NINE HIGHLIGHT
Highlight of the front nine was his eagle 3 at the 481 yard sixth hole where a five iron second shot was followed by a successful 12 foot putt. But he bettered that at the 18th to finish in style with a superb drive and a six iron second shot on the 568 yard hole to within six feet of the pin where his putter again did the needful.
Joint leader Jacquelin continued to show his love for the tournament as well as the sponsor.
In 2001 the Frenchman won a car for holing in one at the 17th and in 2003 he carded a ten under par at Golfclub München Eichenried to enjoy a share of the course record. Of course this April, too, he also won the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai.
“Although I do enjoy the course and coming here, it is getting more difficult every year,” he said. “But if you put the ball in the fairway you will have chances and I managed to do that. Of course I also love coming to the BMW tournaments – you could say that I am a BMW man.”
Leading the chase of the two leaders was 47 year old Farry who won this title in 1996 when the tournament was reduced to 36 holes because of inclement weather but who has spent the last two years in the virtual golfing wilderness after suffering badly from tendonitis in both elbows.
Knowing he would play in this event as a past champion, Farry, who lost his European Tour playing privileges at the end of the 2003 season, entered last week’s Open de Saint Omer and although he missed the cut through a lack of confidence on the greens, he saw enough in his game to approach this week with some confidence.
“Apart from my putting last week I prepared myself well for this week,” he said. “I changed putter yesterday as well and that seemed to work as I had a pretty good round in the pro-am here too.
“I’m not a millionaire, I need the money like anyone else but I would say my main concern is that I miss the Tour and the people on it. It is like a big family and one I have been part of for many years. But I would say now my main goal is to prepare for the Seniors Tour because I’ll be 48 next month.”
BAG OF SEVEN BIRDIES
Like Lima, Farry had only one dropped shot on his card but more than made up for that with seven birdies elsewhere including a fine start to his round of four birdies in the first six holes.
Joining the Frenchman in a share of third place was Fernandez-Castaño who had a day on the sleek and smooth putting surfaces at Golfclub München Eichenried that all professionals dream about. In total the Spaniard had eight birdies but felt like he would knock in every putt he stood over.
“I holed absolutely everything out there and for a while I even felt sorry for my playing partners because everything was going into the hole, it didn’t matter the distance or the break,” he said. “It was just one of those days and I really hope I can have three more like that.
“The greens are wonderful here and the thing about them is that I seem to find them very easy to read. Maybe it is the fact that I took two weeks off to rest and recharge my batteries that I have come back refreshed and I can see all the lines!”
Late in the day, Broadhurst joined the Frenchman and the Spaniard in a tie for third place, an eagle three at the sixth hole being the highlight of the Englishman’s day.
While the leading quintet did well, the name all eyes gravitated towards on the leaderboards was Els who also eagled the 18th – his ninth hole of the day – on the way to a 67.
“That was a decent start to my tournament,” he said. “We had beautiful weather conditions in the morning apart from towards the end (when play was suspended for 45 minutes due to thunder and lightning in the area).
“I think I only hit one bad drive all day on the 15th (where he dropped his only shot of the day) but apart from that I was pretty solid and for the rest of the day I kept it in play, hit a lot of greens and made a putt here and there. It was a nice, enjoyable round, especially coming from last week.”

FIRST-ROUND SCOREBOARD

Par 72 Players from GB&I unless stated.

65 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra).
66 Marc Farry (Fra), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Paul Broadhurst
67 Niclas Fasth (Swe), Ernie Els (Rsa), Andres Romero (Arg), Francesco Molinari (Ita), David Frost (Rsa)
68 Alastair Forsyth, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Thomas Levet (Fra), Peter Fowler (Aus), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Paul Casey, Anders Hansen (Den), Nick Dougherty.
69 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), David Griffiths, Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), S O'Hara.
70 Steve Webster, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Oliver Wilson, Brett Rumford (Aus), Simon Khan, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Kariem Baraka (Ger), Tom Whitehouse, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned)
71 Peter Lawrie, Gary Emerson, Andrew Marshall, James Hepworth, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Markus Brier (Aut), Mardan Mamat (Sing), David Lynn, Jamie Spence, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Miles Tunnicliff, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Jonas Kolbing (Ger) (am), Graeme Storm
72 Stephen Gallacher, Benn Barham, Alexander Knappe (Ger) (am), Simon Dyson, Matthew Millar, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Anthony Wall, Jochen Lupprian (Ger), David Park, Robert Rock, Shuv Kapur (Ind), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Sven Struver (Ger), Soren Hansen (Den), Mark Foster
73 Scott Drummond, Christopher Hanell (Swe), Garry Houston, Cesar Monasterio (Arg), Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Phillip Archer, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), James Heath, Sam Walker, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Richard Finch, Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Gary Lockerbie, Phillip Price, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson (Swe)
74 Andrew Tampion (Aus), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Shaun Webster, Damien McGrane, Paul McGinley, Paul Lawrie, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Terry Price (Aus), Gary Murphy, Sam Little, Juan Parron (Spa), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Oliver Fisher
75 Peter O'Malley (Aus), Lee Slattery, Andrew Coltart, Gregory Havret (Fra), Santiago Luna (Spa), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Ariel Canete (Arg), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Simon Hurd, Marcus Higley, Mark Pilkington, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Stephen Dodd
76 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Marc Warren, Andrew Raitt, Ralf Geilenberg (Ger), Bernhard Langer (Ger)
77 Manuel Kempe (Ger), Johan Axgren (Swe), Yang Yong-eun (Kor), Chris Gane
78 Joakim Backstrom (Swe), James Kingston (Rsa), Simon Wakefield, Marcel Siem (Ger)
80 Nicolas Metinger (Ger), Wolfgang Huget (Ger)
82 Sandy Lyle
Withdrew Colin Montgomerie