Three players – Trevor Immelman, Peter Lonard and Steve Webster – shared the lead in the first round of the Heineken Classic, but in many ways it was Royal Melbourne Golf Club which was the star of the show, recovering admirably from atrocious overnight weather to allow almost all the field to complete their opening rounds.
Wednesday had been the coldest February day on record in the Victoria area of Australia with a month’s worth of rain falling in 24 hours. The overnight storm brought down trees and power lines across the city, causing a two and a half hour delay to the start of play which eventually got underway at 9.50am thanks to the course, which is situated on Melbourne’s famous sand-belt, draining superbly.
Although a little damp, Immelman, Lonard and Webster were not complaining as they moved into a share of pole position for the €225,367 (£155,820) first prize with matching opening rounds of six under par 65.
Immelman was the first man to post the clubhouse’s leading mark after getting off to a blistering start over Dr Alister MacKenzie’s famous layout. Beginning his round on the tenth hole, the South African scorched through the back nine in 29 strokes with six birdies in seven holes from the 12th.
For a moment, Ernie Els’s course record 60, set on the opening day of last year’s tournament looked in danger but Immelman, the winner of consecutive South African Airways Opens on The European Tour International Schedule in 2003-04, cooled a little on the front nine.
The 25 year old did birdie the second and fifth holes but gave both shots back with an uncharacteristic double bogey five on the 201 yard par three eighth hole where he misclubbed and came up well short of the green. But apart from that, Immelman pronounced himself pleased with his opening effort.
“This is my third Heineken Classic so I am fairly familiar with the course but I would not say that I am 100 per cent familiar with every little mound on the greens which is the key to this course,” he said. “But it is one of those courses where you are excited every day when you get out there because it is one of the best in the world.”
Next to share the lead was home favourite Lonard, who spread his assault on the course more evenly than Immelman with three birdies in each half of his flawless 65, including a birdie four on his closing hole, the 557 yard ninth.
“I did not think we were going to be playing this week when I came to the course this morning,” he said. “All the streets were waterlogged and flooded and when I came down about seven o clock they said we’d be playing in a couple of hours.
“I thought there is no way we will be able to play in a couple of hours so I had some breakfast and, lo and behold, two hours we were playing. It says an awful lot for the quality of the course and the way it can recover.”
Completing the leading triumvirate was Webster, the only one of the leading trio to play Royal Melbourne Golf Club the right way round and the Englishman was in fine form, knocking in seven birdie putts in total, which more than made up for his only dropped shot of the day at the 464 yard 14th.
“I played really poorly here last year so when I looked at the golf course this week I was really determined to try and make up for that and play half decently,” he said. “I just played really nicely today and got off to a great start.”
Three players tied for fourth place on five under par 66 – England’s John Bickerton, Australia’s Brad Lamb and Camilo Villegas of Colombia – while a host of players ended their opening rounds on three under par 68 including the two players who provided such a thrilling end to last week’s Caltex Masters, presented by Carlsberg, Singapore 2005, eventual champion Nick Dougherty of England and Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie.
Defending champion Ernie Els, who is aiming to become only the sixth player in the history of official competition to win a tournament four years running, carded an opening one over par 72.
The World Number Three, who led from start to finish at Royal Melbourne Golf Club 12 months ago, started his round from the tenth but dropped two shots in an outward half of 37 before picking up his first birdie of the day on the par five second.
The 35 year old South African also birdied the fourth and fifth to get into red figures for the first time, but two more bogeys left him seven shots off the pace. “It was just one of those days. I never got going,” he said.
