Former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart turned back the clock with a stunning display of putting to take an early one-shot lead in the first round of the Scandinavian Masters.
The 33-year-old Briton, a member of the losing Ryder Cup team in 1999, holed three times from 30ft or longer to record a five-under-par 67 at Barseback and lead Maarten Lafeber and Kevin Na by a stroke.
"I'm playing with a new putter this week and I also putted with a glove on, something I haven't done since I was a kid, " said Coltart, who agreed he could 'write a book' on putting grips.
= The Scot rounded off his day with a 40-footer and felt he had done well to keep his concentration for his seventh birdie. "We waited seven minutes between shots and it took an age to get on to the green," added Coltart, who said he had also adjusted his swing.
Dutchman Lafeber is hoping to return to the form that earned him third and fourth places in the opening two events of the European Tour. The 28-year-old has slipped to 79th on the order of merit after missing 11 of his last 17 cuts, including on his U.S. Open debut.
Na, 19, had his father Yong on the bag as he played on a further European Tour invitation. The California-based South Korean, fourth on last year's Asian Tour order of merit, once again expressed his frustration at not taking up European Tour affiliation. If he had, a good finish this week added to the 140,000 dollars he has already won on European events would have earned him enough to have claimed a Tour card for next season.
New European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer showed his playing career is by no means over with a round of 70. The German's short game was described as "phenomenal" by his playing partner and defending champion Graeme McDowell, who carded 73.
Michael Campbell also shot 70, but was feeling the after-effects of his victory in last week's Irish Open "There were a few tired shots out there and it was pretty hard to conjure up focus, because after the high last week there is always going to be a bit of a low to follow, so I hung in to score so well," said the New Zealander.
Best of the Irish were McDowell, Damien McGrane and Ronan Rafferty, all on one-over, though McGrane still has eight shots of second round left to play. Peter Lawrie and Paul McGinley languished further back on two-over and three-pver-par respectively.
Reuters