Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano birdied his last three holes in carding a six-under 66 at the Qatar Masters, overcoming wind and blowing sand to lead John Daly by a shot after the first round on Thursday.
Daly (67) was followed by K.J. Choi (68) and Jason Day (68).
Six players, including 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and Nicolas Colsaerts, were three shots off the pace. Martin Kaymer (71) and Sergio Garcia (72) were in contention, but about two-thirds of the field shot over par, including defending champion Thomas Bjorn (79).
Photo: AFP
“It just happened,” Fernandez-Castano said with a smile. “It was such a difficult day that you didn’t have any expectation going out there. Every shot was difficult. Every shot, you had to be 100 percent focused. That is probably what kept me in the game.”
The Spaniard, winner of five European Tour titles, holed several putts of more than 20 feet on his way to nine birdies to go along with three bogeys. He played his best golf on the back nine, bouncing back from a bogey on 13 to make four birdies on the final five holes.
“I think the key was holing the putt on 16th,” Fernandez-Castano said.
“I hit the green with my three-wood. The first putt was very poor, left it 3m short of the hole and managed to hole that one. You never know, maybe I missed that one and your momentum disappears. But I holed that one and hit a lovely shot on the next, holed the putt and then had a lovely drive on the last ... I had a tricky bunker shot and holed the last putt,” he said.
Daly benefited from milder conditions in the morning when gusts of up 35kph died down for several holes. The two-time major winner shot bogey-free golf, including five birdies.
Opening his season in Doha, he wants to get back on track after struggling at the end of last year, the nadir being when he quit the Australian Open in November after hitting seven balls into water.
“It was brutal. I’m pretty shocked myself by shooting five-under,” said Daly, sporting a buzz cut, and bright red and black checkered pants.
Daly, who won The Open in 1995 in wind and rain, said he often thrives in tough conditions like those endured on Thursday, adding that he was helped by consistent driving and the way he “managed the course.”
“I had a lot of chances to at least hit the greens and I can’t say its from practicing a lot because I took a lot of time off, which I pretty much needed,” Daly said.
“I love the way I putted. I’ve always been kind of decent in the wind. I’m a streaky putter so you can sometimes hit some bad putts and get away with it,” he added.
Some players said they have faced windier conditions, especially in England and Scotland. However, what made the Doha course so challenging, they said, was that the strong winds were kicking up sand from the surrounding desert.
Balls were difficult to track off the tee because of lower visibility and sand was getting into their hair, eyes and everything else, they said.
“I know what wiener schnitzel feels like, because I’m pan-fried,” Fernandez-Castano said.
Lee Westwood, who missed the cut last year, said he was just happy to break par.
“71 felt like a good score,” Westwood tweeted. “Left a few out there but have a very smooth completion on the plus side! Sandblasted!”
Several big names fared worse and were in danger of missing the cut, including Ryder Cup player Ross Fisher, who finished with a nine-over 81, Bjorn at seven-over and Robert Karlsson, who shot 78.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier