European Tour:Darren Clarke has condemned the decision to stage the 2014 Ryder Cup on the Centenary course at Gleneagles, venue for this week's Johnnie Walker Championship.
The Dungannon man, who following the death of his wife returned to golf to help Europe's team to a resounding win over the US last year, feels the match in seven years' time should not be played on what he feels is "an American-style" course.
Clarke had never played the Jack Nicklaus-designed Centenary course in competition until yesterday, and he was not impressed.
After carding a level-par 73 to lie eight strokes off Marc Warren's lead, Clarke said: "I think it is unbelievable they (the Ryder Cup committee) have chosen this course to stage the 2014 match.
"There's only been one Ryder Cup in Scotland, in 1973 (Muirfield), and then they choose a course like this one.
"There are even two better ones here at Gleneagles. Scotland is the home of golf and we should not be playing on an American-style course; it's beyond my comprehension."
Clarke is not against Gleneagles staging the match, if it were played over the adjacent Kings course, which has staged European Tour events, or the "Queens" course.
"Gleneagles is a wonderful venue but this is the wrong course," said Clarke. "The Ryder Cup is steeped in history and I just can't see it here."
Meanwhile, Warren was back singing the praises of coach Bob Torrance after a superb eight-under-par 65.
After more than three months without a top-20 finish, last season's Rookie of the Year allowed his feelings to boil over earlier this week - with Torrance, the man who steered Padraig Harrington to British Open glory last month, in the firing line.
"I think it's sometimes easy to forget that Bob is in your corner," said Warren, rated so highly by fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie that he puts him among his 35 possibles for next year's Ryder Cup.
"A lot of times players want to take it out on him purely because he is there. The caddie gets it on the course and he gets it on the range.
"On Tuesday we were working away and it wasn't really the way I wanted it to be. I spoke to Bob later that night and we both agreed I was just frustrated the way I had been playing and it came to a head.
"Everything is fine now. He has an obscene talent for watching the golf swing. But he is human and everyone misses things."
A change to his set-up brought instant rewards, Warren grabbing eight birdies on the par-73 Centenary Course and missing his lowest round on the circuit by only one shot.
Now he is hoping he can still improve on his 42nd place on the Order of Merit last year - he is currently 69th - and, of course, win again.
A good performance this week can also enable him to keep his place alongside Montgomerie in Scotland's World Cup side.
On his debut in the event last December they lost a play-off to Germany's Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem.
After a 69 Montgomerie is now among those chasing Warren, who finished the day one ahead of Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and two in front of 2004 winner Miles Tunnicliff and Indian Jeev Milkha Singh, who was boosted on the eve of the tournament when his clubs, missing for three days, were finally delivered.
Among the group on five-under 68 is England's Zane Scotland, showing once more what a star he could be on the circuit if only he could get a card.
Lee Westwood was playing with Montgomerie and managed only a 74, while defending champion Paul Casey, who partnered Warren, had a two-under-par 71.
Peter Lawrie is best of the Irish after an opening one-under-par 72. The Newlands man mixed five birdies with four bogeys in halves of 36. Clarke, Gary Murphy and Damian McGrane are all on level-par 73. Starting at the 10th, Clarke was three over par after eight holes but four birdies over the closing 10 holes got him back in the race.
Murphy eagled the ninth but double bogeyed the 11th, while McGrane birdied the 10th after taking a double-bogey five at the third. David Higgins is on one over par after a 74.
(Irish in bold, British unless stated, par 73)
65 - Marc Warren
66 - Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel)
67 - Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Miles Tunnicliff
68 - Mark Pilkington, Zane Scotland, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phillip Archer, Phillip Price, James Hepworth, Simon Wakefield
69 - Richard Bland, Greig Hutcheon, Soren Hansen (Den), Colin Montgomerie, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Marcus Higley, Paul Lawrie, Dean Robertson, Tom Whitehouse, Alastair Forsyth, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Thomas Levet (Fra)
70 - Mark Loftus, James Kingston (Rsa), Oliver Wilson, Luis Claverie (Spa), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Graeme Storm, Sam Walker, David Drysdale, Robert Rock, James Heath, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Barry Lane, Ian Garbutt
71 - Martin Erlandsson (Swe), David Griffiths, Kevin Mcalpine, Sion Bebb, Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Steven O'Hara, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Terry Price (Aus), Steve Alker (Nzl), Scott Strange (Aus), Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Paul Casey, Alexandre Rocha (Bra), Stephen Gallacher, Richard Finch, Ignacio Garrido (Spa)
72 - Andrew Tampion (Aus), Christopher Hanell (Swe), Robert Dinwiddie, Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Peter Lawrie (Irl), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Lee Slattery, Stephen Dodd, Jamie Spence, Alexander Noren (Swe), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Manuel Quiros (Spa), Alan McLean, David Lynn, Gary Lockerbie, Brett Rumford (Aus), Andrew Marshall, David Bransdon (Aus), Stuart Little
73 - Damien McGrane (Irl), Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice), Rafael Echenique (Arg), David Frost (Rsa), Oliver Fisher, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Anthony Wall, Santiago Luna (Spa), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Garry Houston, Richard McEvoy, Darren Clarke (NIrl), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Gary Murphy (Irl), Taichi Teshima (Jpn), Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha), Ariel Canete (Arg), Martin Maritz (Rsa), Peter O'Malley (Aus), Christopher Doak
74 - Christian Cevaer (Fra), Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Jean Hugo (Rsa), Andrew Coltart, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Martin Kaymer (Ger), David Park, Carl Suneson (Spa), Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), David Higgins (Irl), Mark Foster, Lee Westwood, Edward Rush, Gregory Havret (Fra)
75 - David Carter, Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Scott Henderson, Benn Barham, Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Scott Drummond, Andrew Raitt, Sam Little, Bradley Dredge
76 - Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Shaun P Webster, Ross Fisher, Marcel Siem (Ger), Kyron Sullivan, Kenneth Ferrie, Gary Emerson, Simon Khan, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
77 - Christian Nilsson (Swe), Richie Ramsay, Gareth Davies, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Johan Axgren (Swe), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Lee S James, Sven Struver (Ger), Matthew Millar (Aus), Adrien Mork (Fra), Chris Kelly, Jonathan Lomas
78 - John Gallacher, Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Sandy Lyle
79 Juan Parron (Spa), Craig Lee, Jason McCreadie, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Robert Arnott, Cesar Monasterio (Arg), Mardan Mamat (Sin)
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