SANDY LYLE HAS FIVE AIR

SHOTS IN AN 84 OPENER

AT VOLVO MASTERS

FROM THE TIMES ONLINE WEBSITE

Paul McGinley, Ronan Rafferty and Sandy Lyle, all former winners of the Volvo Masters, performed their own version of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" when the tournament began at Valderrama today.
McGinley set the early clubhouse lead with a two-under-par 69, sinking a 155yd nine iron for an eagle 2 at the 16th.
Rafferty, who came out of retirement for his first European Tour event in over four years, slumped to an 83 and Lyle, whose last tournament victory was on this course in 1992, slumped to an 84 - five of them air shots after attempting to get out of trouble left-handed from beside a tree.
That came on the 381-yard fifth. The 49-year-old Scot pulled his drive and decided his best option was to try to knock the ball back onto the fairway. After five unsuccessful attempts to connect with the ball, he eventually moved it a few feet and walked off the green with a sextuple-bogey.
He then went into the lake from the bunker over the 17th green to add a triple-bogey 8 to his card. "What a way to start the week," sighed Sandy. "I felt good about it after finishing fifth in Morocco last week, but I decided to be a complete pain in the a*** and show I could play it left-handed. Five whiffs. I've never done that before."
Rafferty was one under after chipping in at the short third but took 7 on the 515yd next and later ran up a quadruple-bogey 8 at the 13th, going from the trees on the left to those on the right.
"I play for fun twice a month and this is far too difficult for my level of play," he said. "It's even tougher than I remember and even for the guys who play every week you will see how difficult it is," said Ronan.
"I'm glad I came, though, and I'll try my best to play all 72 holes. Some of it will be shocking and some if it will be okay. My goal was nine pars and a birdie each day." He managed two birdies and seven pars.
McGinley, a member of last year's Ryder Cup team who resigned as a vice-captain to Nick Faldo because he wanted to concentrate on re-igniting his playing career, had hoped to qualify for the Volvo Masters as one of the top 60 money-winners this season.
But, 74th on the list, he fell back on the invitation given to past winners and made excellent use of it. The 2005 champion said: "I've not played well enough, that's the bottom line. I'm determined to get to the bottom of it - I know there's a lot of golf left in me. It's been tough, but I'm determined to come back."
On stepping down as Faldo's assistant in September, four months after accepting the job, he added: "The more I did the more I realised that it's a drain on my energy and something that I'm not ready for. I wanted to nip it in the bud. Down the road hopefully there will be more opportunities. Never say never."

Only four men broke the par of 71 - leader Graeme McDowell (68), McGinlay (69), Justin Rose and Aussie Peter O'Malley, both with 70s.
With table-topping Ernie Els in the Far East, Open champion Padraig Harrington and Rose, separated by only £461 in second and third place, both need a top-three finish on Sunday to usurp Els from the top of the Order of Merit table.
The difference between them, however, means Rose also has to make sure he is ahead of Harrington, while the Open champion has only to be on level terms with Rose.
Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth, the Swedes, also have a chance to finish the year as European No 1, but either has to win the tournament to do that.

Colin Montgomerie was top Scot at the end of the first day but he did not have to play particularly well for that honour. He had a one-over 72 while Marc Warren had a disastrous 82 and we all know now that Sandy Lyle had an 84.

Among the big names who found the course too much of a handful was Ryder Cup player Paul Casey. He signed for a nine-over-par 80.

FIRST-ROUND SCOREBOARD

Par 71

68 Graeme McDowell
69 Paul McGinley
70 Justin Rose, Peter O'Malley (Aus)
71 Ross Fisher, Padraig Harrington, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
72 Anders Hansen (Den), Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer (Ger)
73 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Brett Rumford (Aus), Anthony Wall, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)
74 Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Oliver Wilson, Simon Dyson, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa)
75 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Soren Hansen (Den), Nick Dougherty, Simon Khan, Simon Wakefield, Peter Hanson (Swe), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Alastair Forsyth, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Bradley Dredge, Richard Sterne (Rsa)
76 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Andres Romero (Arg), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Ian Poulter, Phillip Archer, Markus Brier (Aut), Mark Foster, Henrik Stenson (Swe)
77 Robert Karlsson (Swe), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Peter Hedblom (Swe)
78 Alex Cejka (Ger)
79 Steve Webster, Pelle Edberg (Swe)
80 Paul Casey
81 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Graeme Storm
82 Marc Warren
83 Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Ronan Rafferty, Gregory Havret (Fra)
84 Sandy Lyle