Michael Campbell, who shot a 63 in the first round to lead the Compass Group English Open by a record six strokes last year, went even lower in Germany to open up a four shot advantage at the start of the rain-interrupted Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe at St.Leon-Rot.
The New Zealander fired a first round 62, ten under par, but his score did not count as a new course record due to the ‘lift and clean’ rule being in operation following torrential rain storms which forced a seven hour delay to the tournament.
Campbell shot symmetrical halves of 31 to card the lowest round of his career, providing him with a four stroke cushion over a quartet of players in defending champion, Lee Westwood, Ernie Els, Eduardo Romero and Lucas Parsons.
Charging from the gates like a stampeding bull is not a rarity for the Kiwi. He did so at the 1995 Open Championship at St.Andrews but could not quite pull off a remarkable victory.
Despite his opening 63 at the Marriott Forest of Arden last summer, he had to settle for joint second place, unable to repulse Darren Clarke’s late thrust. Once again, he finds himself in pole position and ready to meet the challenge of the chasing pack.
“I played better today than I did at the Forest of Arden” he said. “I hit the ball great today and sank a few long putts. Most of my birdie putts were from four or five feet and it makes the game easier if you hit it close.”
Campbell may have a lead of four strokes over the four players on 66, but he is seven ahead of 1999 winner and World Number One, Tiger Woods, who triumphed on the only other time the tournament was played at St.Leon-Rot. However Campbell, not surprisingly, does not consider that as anything like a huge advantage with 54 holes remaining.
“I am seven in front of Tiger but that is not many with three rounds to play. It’s nice to lead after the first round but I have enough experience to know that it is more important to get the trophy at the end of four rounds. This is the lowest I’ve gone, but my goal now is to go out and try to shoot another low one tomorrow.”
Less than half of the field managed to complete 18 holes, with play suspended at dusk with three groups still to finish. The second half will play twice tomorrow with the second round not decided until Saturday morning.
Westwood, who overtook Woods over the closing holes last year, admitted his game has “improved by 20 per cent” on last week – but is still hovering around the 60 per cent mark.
“Not bad” he said. “I played okay and hit quite a few good shots. I wasn’t entirely happy with my game but to shoot 66 when you’re not happy means, I suppose, that you have to be happy” he added with a touch of perverse logic.
Els, who has blown hot and cold this season, could not make much happen on his first nine but caught fire coming home in 31 blows assisted by an eagle three at the tenth and a birdie at the 11th, followed by a further two birdies on his way to a 66.
“The tenth was really the turning point. I hit a three wood 263 yards to four feet and holed the putt” he commented. “All in all, not to make a bogey, was quite good. I had the ‘R & A’ driver out today and started to hit some good ones on the back nine. I just have to get used to the shaft and loft.”
Woods had a mixed bag – four birdies and two bogeys in his first nine – and just a solitary birdie on his homeward stretch. His succinct comment told the whole story: “I just ground it out. I didn’t do anything that would really hurt me but I didn’t really do anything great either.”