Wilson and Dredge share early advantage

GOLF QATAR MASTERS: BRITAIN'S OLIVER Wilson and Bradley Dredge toughed out windy conditions to fire five-under-par 67s to share the lead after the opening round of the Qatar Masters yesterday.

The pair are one stroke clear of four players – Lee Westwood, Germany’s Marcel Siem and the Swedish duo of Robert Karlsson and Alex Noren.

Just 24 players in the 126-player field managed to break par on the windswept Doha Club course, including Ireland’s Shane Lowry (71) and Gareth Maybin (71), who are tied 15th.

Wilson bounced back in superb style after missing the halfway cut in last week’s Abu Dhabi Championship with a scoring display that included six birdies and one bogey.

“I am really pleased with a 67, and it’s strange, as it didn’t feel that hard,” he said. “It felt quite easy, in context. Then I got in and realised the scores so obviously it has been playing tough out there, so it looked tough for a lot of guys.”

Wilson, in his sixth full European Tour season, is still seeking to capture a first Tour success after nine second-place finishes. With the help of some changes introduced into his game over the off-season, he is looking to correct that statistic ahead of this year’s Ryder Cup in Wales.

“I did a lot of change over Christmas and they are not quite grooved yet,” he said.

“I haven’t won, so something needed to change. So I did a lot of evaluating over Christmas with my coach and my team with various thoughts on things and stats and where I need to improve things and sort of implemented plans for that.”

Dredge began his round with a bogey but then birdied five of his closing seven holes including three in succession from his 14th ahead of holing a 20-foot birdie putt in near darkness on his final green.

“The forecast was for the wind to die down on the back nine, and it did that and we were fortunate,” said Dredge.

Westwood was delighted to also bounce back from also missing the halfway cut last week.

Last year’s European number one had a new set of irons shipped to him from the United States and Westwood was delighted with the turnaround in his game.

“I played very solidly, missing two greens and two fairways, so today was more like picking up from last year’s golf,” he said.

Westwood called for new regulations for club-face grooves to be strictly policed, saying golf’s ruling bodies should consider introducing a Formula One-like scenario after a round by testing the legality of the clubs used by players at the top of the leaderboard.

New rules were introduced on January 1st this year by golf’s two ruling bodies, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrew and the United States Golf Association, banning U-shaped grooves in favour of V-grooves.

The ruling gave Westwood little time in the off-season to get familiar with the new grooves in his Ping irons. He blamed the clubs he used last week in Abu Dhabi as instrumental in missing the halfway cut in his first tournament of the year: “It was nothing to do with Ping, and it’s not their fault but I just haven’t had enough chance to work with them.”

“The manufacturers are not sure about the testing and the parameters, so it’s semi-ridiculous situation and you have the fact that players have to almost check their own clubs to see if they are legal.

“I think it should be like Formula One and you get these guys at the top of the leaderboard and test their clubs after they have played so you know who is playing within the rules and who is not. We are all sort of in the dark at the start of the year,” added Westwood, who said officials at next month’s WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship should test the clubs of every player.

“At the first World Golf Championship of the year, everybody has to have their clubs tested.”

Peter Lawrie was next best of the Irish contingent with a level-par 72.

A shot adrift was Graeme McDowell (73), while Michael Hoey shot a two-over-par 74 to be tied 35th, a shot ahead of Damien McGrane (75).

Qatar Masters

(Brit unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72)

67– O Wilson, B Dredge.

68– R Karlsson (Swe), A Noren (Swe), M Siem (Ger), L Westwood.

69– B Rumford (Aus).

70– P Hanson (Swe), R Ramsay, R Fisher, C Schwartzel (SA), N Fasth (Swe), S Garcia (Spa), C Villegas (Col).

71– M Lundberg (Swe), RJ Derksen (Ned), H Otto (SA), A Hansen (Den), Gareth Maybin, F Delamontagne (Fra), A Quiros (Spa), M Warren, Shane Lowry, P Casey.

72– N Dougherty, A Coltart, L Oosthuizen (SA), Peter Lawrie, P Broadhurst, S Hutsby, R Gonzalez (Arg), MA Jimenez (Spa), O Henningsson (Swe), I Garrido (Spa).

73– M Williams, M Erlandsson (Swe), J Kingston (SA), Graeme McDowell, R Goosen (SA), P Hedblom (Swe), S Dyson, JM Lara (Spa), G Lockerbie, D Lee (Nzl), A Kang (USA), G Boyd, S Micheel (USA), T Bjorn (Den), E Molinari (Ita).

74– S Kjeldsen (Den), M Ilonen (Fin), M Kaymer (Ger), J Bickerton, A Wall, A Forsyth, G Fdez-Castano (Spa), Michael Hoey, R Bland, C Nilsson (Swe), S Kapur (Ind), D Horsey, R Jacquelin (Fra), K Perry (USA), R Finch, R Green (Aus), J-F Lucquin (Fra).

75– Damien McGrane, S Hansen (Den), R Echenique (Arg), T Jaidee (Tha), P Larrazabal (Spa), S Dodd, P Marksaeng (Tha), M Fraser (Aus), H Stenson (Swe), C Cevaer (Fra), C Wood, SSP Chowrasia (Ind), S Gallacher, P Lawrie, F Zanotti (Par), I Poulter, G Bourdy (Fra), A Canete (Arg), T Levet (Fra).

76– F Aguilar (Chi), G Orr, C Montgomerie, M Jonzon (Swe), D Willett, R Cabrera Bello (Spa), M Brown (Nzl), S Khan.

77– J Haeggman (Swe), F Molinari (Ita), M Campbell (Nzl), D Howell, P Waring, D Lynn, K Ferrie, D Vancsik (Arg), D Drysdale, M Foster, J Randhawa (Ind), R McGowan.

78– T Aiken (SA), J Huldahl (Den), S Webster, T Hamilton (USA), M Lafeber (Ned), D Fichardt (SA), G Storm, R Muntz (Ned).

79– M Brier (Aut), T Goya (Arg), S Little, J Edfors (Swe), B Lane, S Benson.

80– J Donaldson, P Martin (Spa), G Havret (Fra).

81– R Rock, E Compton (USA), R Davies.

82– D Dixon.