Garcia gets his timing just right

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.

Because of flight problems, US Masters champion Angel Cabrera failed to make it from Bermuda in time, but would have been okay if play had been suspended 15 minutes earlier.

Garcia was on the 17th hole of his eight-under-par 63 round 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 Argentine had to be disqualified.

Cabrera had 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.

A helicopter was laid on at Valencia airport and a landing arranged at a soccer pitch near the Mediterraneo course, but Cabrera did not make it.

“I did my best and I never once thought about not coming,” the Argentine told reporters after arriving an hour after his scheduled start.

“My son is playing so I wanted to be playing too. And it’s such a pity that I missed my chance by about 10 or 15 minutes in the end.”

“It was always going to be tight,” tournament director Miguel Vidaor said.

“Everything was done to get him here in time. He was changed and ready to go and even went through customs on the plane.”

Garcia, who is also one of the tournament promoters, added: “He gave it his best. We’re definitely going to miss him a lot.”

But 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!

“Any time you play your home course you obviously hope and expect to do well.

“But for the last two or three months, I feel everything’s coming together more and I’m just looking for that little bit of confidence.”

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.

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.

Darren Clarke made up the threeball with Garcia and Olazabal and he signed for a respectable three-under 68.

The Dungannon man, who needs a strong week to help to get into the top-60 on the money list to secure a place in the final event in Dubai, had two bogeys and a birdie on his first nine, but came home with four birdies on the front nine.

Paul McGinley was level par for the nine holes he was able to complete, while Gary Murphy was struggling at one over through 11, which was good enough only for a share of 75th.

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 Michael Jonzon.

The Swede had been joined by Australian Robert Allenby by the time play was called off for the day, and Allenby still had seven holes to play.

German Martin Kaymer, with a definite limp on his return from the surgery he needed in August after breaking toes in a go-kart crash, was going well too at four under after 12.