Putting surfaces get thumbs down from many players

Gleneagles greens

should be ripped

up -Westwood

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE

Lee Westwood, pictured right, has called for the greens on the 2014 Ryder Cup course at Gleneagles to be ripped up after shooting a one under par 72 - which included three putts from 18 inches on the fifth green - in the first round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
With Frenchman Gregory Havret setting the pace with a 68 - he leads by two - Westwood's effort has far from ruined his hopes of victory on Sunday.
But, already safely into Nick Faldo's Ryder Cup side himself, he feels sympathy for those still battling for inclusion and having to do so on what he clearly considers greens from Hell, saying: "I said last year that the greens were awful and something needed to be done."
He added: "At the end of the week unfortunately the tournament could be won or lost by luck on the greens."
And so, of course, could somebody's Ryder Cup fate.
"They are the people I feel really sorry for. There is a lot riding on that. They are going to be feeling pressure as it is and you don't want to be standing over a three-footer with so much doubt in your mind not knowing if the ball is going to run straight."

The Perthshire course was originally designed by Jack Nicklaus as the Monarch's Course. There is just about enough time to fix it for the 2014 Ryder Cup, if Westwood is to be believed.

"You could rip them up and replace them," he said when asked what could be done to improve the greens. "Hopefully, they won't use the designer who had two goes at doing the seventh because if you have two goes to get it to that stage . . . well, my kids could do better in one afternoon."
Support for Westwood's views was widespread among the players including former US Open champion, New Zealander Michael Campbell.

Campbell, whose forefathers emigrated from the Edinburgh area, says the Centenary course greens at Gleneagles are the worst he has played on.
"In fairness there's been a lot of rain in the region lately but these are the worst putting surfaces I have ever putted on," said Campbell, who carded an even-par 73 to be tied for 22nd after the opening round.
Playing with Westwood was Mansfield's Oliver Wilson, in the 10th and last automatic qualifying spot entering the week and under threat from Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty. Wilson shot a three over 76, but so did Kaymer after losing a ball at the 320yd 14th and taking a double-bogey 6.
Fisher did better with a 72, but he has to finish third to have a chance, while Dougherty, who needs first or second place, battled away for a 73.
Justin Rose and Soren Hansen are not yet safe at eighth and ninth on the points table, but by scoring level par and two under respectively they have no cause to lose any sleep yet.

Gary Orr continued his recent good run of form and is the leading Scot on the 70 mark. Defending champion Marc Warren had a 73, one better than Colin Montgomerie.

Paul Lawrie, Greig Hutcheon, Robert Arnott and Lloyd Saltman are all on the three-over-par 76 mark and facing a fight to beat the cut.
END OF FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 73
68 Gregory Havret (Fra)
70 Christian Cevaer (Fra), Robert Rock, Gary Orr, Paul Broadhurst
71 Martin Wiegele (Aut), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Anthony Wall, Soren Hansen (Den), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Bradley Dredge
72 Juan Abbate (Arg), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Ross Fisher, Darren Clarke, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Lee S James, Jonathan Lomas, Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Lee Westwood
73 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Peter Whiteford, Paul Waring, Nick Dougherty, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Simon Dyson, David Lynn, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Johan Edfors (Swe), Justin Rose, Marc Warren, Ariel Canete (Arg), Mark Foster
74 Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Colin Montgomerie, Matthew Millar (Aus), Marcel Siem (Ger), Graeme Storm, Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Peter Hanson (Swe), Sion Bebb, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Sam Osborne, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
75 Luis Claverie (Spa), Peter Lawrie, David Orr, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Stephen Gray, Paul McKechnie, Pedro Linhart (Spa), Jamie Donaldson, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Santiago Luna (Spa), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Peter Fowler (Aus), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Garry Houston, Chris Wood, Anton Haig (Rsa), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Peter Baker, David Howell, Scott Drummond, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Stuart Manley, Stephen Gallacher, Gary Murphy
76 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Oliver Wilson, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Oliver Fisher, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Rory McIlroy, Iain Pyman, Sam Little, Steve Alker (Nzl), Greig Hutcheon, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Robert Arnott, Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Lloyd Saltman, Sam Walker, Paul Lawrie, Paul McGinley, Barry Lane, Philip Golding
77 Mark Loftus, Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Benn Barham, Phillip Price, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Julio Zapata (Arg), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Lee Slattery, David Drysdale, Pablo Martin (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)
78 Damien McGrane, David Griffiths, Steven McEwan (am), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Simon Wakefield, Michael Jonzon (Swe), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Steve Webster, Graeme McDowell, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Mark Brown (USA), Tom Whitehouse, Phillip Archer, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Peter O'Malley (Aus)
79 Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Bryan Saltus (US), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Joost Luiten (Ned), Simon Khan, Sam Cairns, David Dixon, Alastair Forsyth, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Florian Praegant (Aut)
80 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Jason McCreadie, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Kyron Sullivan, Danny Willett, Carl Suneson (Spa), Sven Struver (Ger), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Edoardo Molinari (Ita)
81 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Miles Tunnicliff
82 Paolo Terreni (Ita), Robert Dinwiddie, Keir McNicoll (am), Andrew McLardy (SAf), Mardan Mamat (Sin)
83 Craig Lee, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Richard Finch, James Kamte (SAf).