Slow start by McIlroy as Cejka sets hot pace

GOLF TOUR NEWS:GERMANY'S Alex Cejka gave the Verizon Heritage field a low score to aim at as he took the early clubhouse lead at Harbour Town Golf Links yesterday, while Rory McIlroy opened with a one-over-par 72.

As the USPGA Tour resumed following last weekend’s Masters, Cejka shot a bogey-free seven-under-par opening round of 64 on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina to lead by one stroke from American Lee Janzen, who fired a 65.

Two-time US Open champion Janzen posted an inward nine of 31 having started on the 10th tee for only his fourth sub-70 round of the year.

South Africa’s Trevor Immelman failed to successfully defend his Masters title at Augusta National but put disappointing early-season form behind him to finish in a tie for 20th in the opening major of the year.

That good form continued at Harbour Town where, despite closing with a bogey five on the ninth hole, Immelman shot a four-under 66.

Americans Ted Purdy and Brian Gay finished a further shot back on three under, four strokes behind Cejka following 67s, with Charlie Wi of Korea on the same mark having played seven holes of his opening round.

Rod Pampling, Aron Price and Stephen Leaney led the Australian charge at three under.

Pampling posted a 68, as did American Bill Haas, with Price playing the last and Leaney at his eighth hole.

England’s Greg Owen, playing the sixth, was among a group also including Jim Furyk of the USA on two under while Sweden’s Daniel Chopra, Australian Nick O’Hern, Tim Clark of South Africa, Camilo Villegas of Colombia and American Zach Johnson and were part of a big logjam on one under, the latter two in the clubhouse with 70s.

US Ryder Cup star Boo Weekley, chasing a third successive win in the tournament, got his title defence off to a slow start with a bogey at the 10th before getting back on track with a birdie at his second hole, and the defending champion was level par after four holes.

Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal and Ernie Els of South Africa were at level par after five and two holes respectively and English duo Luke Donald and Paul Casey each shot 73s.

Carl Pettersson also shot two over while fellow Swede Fredrik Jacobson slumped to a 76 and Martin Laird of Scotland a 77.

McIlroy made a slow start with a bogey at the second hole but birdied the fourth and fifth before another dropped shot took him to the turn in level-par 36.

More of the same followed on the back nine with a birdie at the 11th being cancelled out with bogeys at the 10th and 18th.

Cejka is making his fourth appearance at the Heritage.

He tied for 25th in 2004, missed the cut in 2003 and was disqualified in 2005 for playing a wrong ball.

In three previous appearances at the Verizon Heritage, Immelman has missed the cut twice and finished tied for 27th in 2003.

China Open

(Irish in bold, British unless stated):

67– M Brier (Aut)

68– D McKenzie (Aus), N Dougherty

69– C Nirat (Tha), S Dyson

70– H Choi (Kor), M Millar (Aus), S Strange (Aus), C Phadungsil (Tha), T Jaidee (Tha)

71 – J Gonnet (Fra), K Song (Aus), C Scott (Aus), R Finch, M Lafeber (Ned), G Fdez-Castano (Spa), M Brown (US), P O'Malley (Aus)

72– C Del Moral (Spa), C Wood, Damien McGrane, W Heo (Kor), P Waring, F Delamontagne (Fra), B Grace (Rsa), R Echenique (Arg), K Eriksson (Swe), Peter Lawrie(Irl), G Storm, W Besseling (Ned), D Dixon, J Hou (Chn), W Liang (Chn), B Kennedy (Aus)

73– M Lundberg (Swe), J Kingston (Rsa), K Moon (Kor), F Aguilar (Chi), J Sjoholm (Swe), W Wu (Tpe), M Long (Nzl), B Wiesberger (Aut), R Cabrera Bello (Spa), A Townsend (Aus), M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), MA Carlsson (Swe), C Montgomerie, L Zhang (Chn), A Rocha (Bra), D Su (Chn)

74– C Gaunt (Aus), S Chan (Tpe), R Dinwiddie, J Van de Velde (Fra), J Edfors (Swe), E Tage Johansen (Nor), S Dodd, A Wu (Chn), W Ormsby (Aus), M Tunnicliff, M Fraser (Aus), D Gleeson (Aus), A Coltart, G Liu (Tpe), B Rumford (Aus), X Xuan Xing (Chn), I Van Weerelt (Ned), G Bourdy (Fra), Z Fan (Chn), Paul McGinley(Irl), B Lane

75– A Nilsson (Rsa), P Edberg (Swe), S Bouvier (Aus), A Snobeck (Fra), T hee Lee (Kor), O Henningsson (Swe), J Hoon Jung (Kor), P Martin (Spa), Qin Xu (Chn), A Hall (Aus), A Haig (Rsa), J King (Aus), Wi-joong Kim (Kor), S Drummond, S Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), J Jung (Kor), A Brown (Aus), C Li (Chn)

76– A Liu (Chn), R Jan Derksen (Ned), M Erlandsson (Swe), A Summers (Aus), J Zhou (Chn), P Hedblom (Swe), K Kang (Kor), D Frost (Rsa), S Wakefield, A Tadini (Ita), K Barnes (Aus), P Wilson (Aus), S Ho Lee (Kor), R Bland, Gareth Maybin(Irl), T Wood (Aus), A Crawford (Aus), Z Xiao (Tpe), Gary Murphy(Irl), F Zanotti (Par), H Yuan (Chn), Wook-Soon Kang (Kor)

77– S Laycock (Aus), Z Scotland, Q Liu (Chn), R Haller (Aus), K Kang (Kor), M Vibe-Hastrup (Den), P Larrazabal (Spa), M Kwon (Kor), S Kang (Kor)

78– M Ilonen (Fin), S Kapur (Ind), J Eom (Kor), X Liu (Chn), M Moore (Aus), S Benson, G Ming Liao (Chn), W Huang (Chn), Kang-Chun Wu (Chn)

79– J Huldahl (Den), M Chen (Tpe), T Jun (Kor), C Gu (Chn), W Lu (Chn), L Shang (Tpe)

80– W Yeh (Tai), T Lambert (Aus), X Zhang (Chn), M Curtain (Aus), X Chen (Chn), Y Liu (Chn)

81– J Evans, M Jie Huang (Chn), G Paddison (Nzl), S Tao Gu (Chn), J Kang (Kor)

82– T Price (Aus), W Huo (Chn), A Liu (Chn)

83– Yong-liang Shao (Chn), Shao-cai He (Chn), Taco Remkes (Ned)

85– Tian Yuan (Chn), Shu-xin Chen (Chn), Wei-hai Kong (Chn).