All the action from the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl
ROYAL Porthcawl showed its teeth as Bernhard Langer rekindled his love for the Rest Bay links, shooting an opening round of 69 to lead the 2017 Senior Open on two-under-par.
Weather forecasters had predicted winds of up to 25mph ahead of the Championship’s opening round. They were wrong - it was worse.
Throughout the day there were winds consistently in excess of 30mph, with those unfortunate enough to go out in the morning having to endure heavy showers throughout their rounds.
When the Senior Open was at Royal Porthcawl three years ago, the twotime Masters champion strolled to a 13-shot victory on 18-under-par. But we won’t be seeing the like of that this week.
Five-time Open Champion Tom Watson, who admitted he was lucky to be just one-over-par after his round, ranked the conditions among the worst he’d ever played in.
But Langer, playing in the second half of the draw with Welshman Ian Woosnam and American John Daly, had the better of the conditions.
Heavy showers earlier in the week and throughout Thursday morning had softened the course and the German took advantage, going straight to the top of the leaderboard with four birdies in his opening nine holes making amends for an opening bogey.
He steadied the ship with three pars after another bogey early in the back nine before producing as wide a miss as you’ll ever see from Langer, leaking it way right of the par-3 15th green.
The 59-year-old, who’s battling laryngitis this week, holed a good putt to complete a typical up and down from the thick stuff but another uncharacteristic push on 17 resulted in a bogey as he came back to the field and into a share of the lead.
He bounced back straightaway, taking advantage of a fine drive up the last to make birdie and claim the clubhouse lead on -2.
“I do like the golf course,” said Langer, “I think it’s very challenging. You can be aggressive at times and you’ve got to be cautious at other times.
“There’s places to hit it and there’s definitely a lot of places not to hit it. So I think my game plan is pretty good.
“It’s just a matter of executing the shots and the putts.”
Argentine Mauricio Molina, the only person in the first half of the draw to break par, and Carl Mason are tucked in behind Langer on -1 with a stack of players, including Colin Montgomerie and Tom Lehman, at level par.
The Welsh challenge here was led by Mark Mouland, who eagled his final hole, cancelling out two of his four bogies, to finish on +2.
But it was fellow Welshmen Phillip Price and Woosnam who troubled the leaders most.
For a time, Price hit the front here too, tied at the top of the pile at oneunder-par during the early part of his round as he defied the worst of the conditions.
But it was the back nine that broke him. A birdie-less run of six pars, two bogies and a double-bogey saw him come home in 40 and finish on +3.
“It was really difficult,” reflected Price, “we had some showers, as well.
“Around 9, 10, 11 it was really bad weather, very wet and windy, really gusty. It was difficult to control the ball.”
Oswestry’s Master champion Woosnam was also threatening the frontrunners at one stage but he fell away on the back nine as well after reaching the turn in one-under-par.
A double bogey on 10 and then back-to-back bogies on 12 and 13 gave him some work to do but a missed fairway on the long par-4 16th resulted in another bogey, compounding his woes.
Though a birdie on the final hole softened the blow somewhat and he’ll start the second round on +3.
Stephen Dodd is alongside defending champion Paul Broadhurst on +4, with Welsh amateur Mike White on +7.