Garcia enjoying home comforts

Golf - European Tour:Defending champion Sergio Garcia took the lead on the wind-affected first day of his home Castello Masters — and one of his main rivals is already out of the event. Flight problems meant Masters champion Angel Cabrera failed to make it from Bermuda in time, but he would have been okay if only play had been suspended 15 minutes earlier.

Garcia was on the 17th hole of his eight under par 63 when 40mph gusts stopped the action for three hours at lunchtime.

Cabrera’s playing partners Martin Kaymer and Gonzalo Fernando-Castano had just teed off, however, and that meant the Argentinian had to be disqualified.

Cabrera finished second in the 36-hole Grand Slam — the tournament for the season’s four major winners — on Tuesday, but then hit problems en route across the Atlantic to Spain.

That makes Garcia an even stronger favourite for what would be the first successful defence of his professional career.

Without a top three finish this year and down from second to 10th in the world, the 29-year-old covered the back nine first in a six under 29.

He then holed a seven-footer on the first, chipped to within three feet of the flag at the long fourth and on the resumption birdied the 553-yard eighth.

Garcia’s only bogey came at the ninth — his last — and he said: “You never like to finish like that, but other than that it was pretty solid and I made some nice putts.

“We get a wind like that only three or four days a year — and usually on those days we chill at home!”

Darren Clarke is best of the three Irish involved on three-under-par after a 68, while Paul McGinley (level par) and Gary Murphy (one over) were late out and will have to finish tomorrow.

Like Cabrera, but for a very different reason, Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was left wishing the hold-up had come sooner.

Montgomerie reached four under, but then had three bogeys in four holes.

When told by an official after the third of them that conditions were too bad to continue he said: “That’s great. The later starters can walk off and we’ve just played in it. That’s okay, is it?”

On his return the Scot parred in for a one under 70.

The second-half of the field had no hope of completing their rounds before the light went, leaving Garcia with a one-stroke lead over Swede Michael Jonzon.

Jose Maria Olazabal, partnering Garcia, finished strongly for a 65, the same score as Emanuele Canonica, the Italian who caddied for him at The Masters in April.