A heart-to-heart with coach Bob Torrance off the range and some hard graft on it paid dividends for Scotland’s Marc Warren when he moved into the lead after the first round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
The 26 year old was in scintillating form around the PGA Centenary Course – the venue for The 2014 Ryder Cup – a flawless eight birdie 65 giving him a one shot lead over Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts and hope to the Scottish supporters that they at last might witness a home winner in this, the tournament’s ninth year.
Looking purely at his recent results, which feature five missed cuts in the last seven outings, it was understandable that many observers reckoned his lofty position was a bit of a surprise. But Warren took the opposite view and pointed to the time spent recently with Torrance as the reason for the revival.
“The last few months have been frustrating because I haven’t been getting the results that I want,” he said. “But over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a couple of things and Bob has been working hard with me on them this week to put it right and today was a glimpse of that.
“On Tuesday we were working away and it wasn’t really the way I wanted it to be. I was frustrated with the way I had been playing and it just came to a head between us on the range. We left it there but I spoke to Bob later that night. We talked things through and everything is fine now.
“Because my ball striking was better on the range today, I felt better about that and I felt confident going onto the course for the first time in a long time and I think it showed in my score.
“I moved the ball right to left and left to right easily and if you are doing that your swing is normally in good shape. If I hit a bad shot it was easy to get over it because I had confidence in my short game and my putting.”
Such was the standard of Warren’s play that the winner of the 2006 Scandinavian Masters did not suffer from many wayward shots at all, his tightened posture and remodelled swing seeing him start with a birdie on his opening hole, the tenth, end with another at the ninth, and pepper six others in between.
It was a performance which impressed all observers, including the defending champion and one of Warren’s playing partners for the day, Paul Casey, who said: “The greens are a little bumpy but Marc demonstrated that you can hole putts on them. It was nice to watch. I think he’s a hell of a player – he’s got all the shots.”
Second placed Colsaerts, who led after three rounds two years ago before finishing tied second behind Emanuele Canonica, continued his love affair with The Gleneagles Hotel with an impressive seven under par opening round of 66.
The 24 year old from Brussels, who first gained a European Tour card at the age of 18, lost it at the end of the 2006 season, but moved in the right direction to get it back with a solid showing. Like Warren he did not drop a shot, but unlike the Scot, he carded two eagles in his round.
The first came in the conventional fashion, an eagle three at the 543 yard 16th from 45 feet, but the second was the fairly rare bird, namely an eagle two at the 419 yard eighth hole – his 17th of the day – where his thunderous tee shot actually touched the edge of the cup before stopping ten feet away, from where he holed out.
“I will just keep on doing my thing,” he said. “I know where to go here and where not to go so I just need to keep it in play and hope. I won’t get too many more starts this season so I suppose it is make or break. There is no pressure yet – maybe on the last nine there will be but I know what I’m playing for.”
India’s Jeev Milkha Singh and the 2004 champion Miles Tunnicliff of England shared third place at the end of the opening day with matching six under par 67s, Singh's round made all the more remarkable because the winner of the 2006 Volvo Masters was unable to play a practice round with his own golf clubs which had been lost in transit.
The 35 year old had already toured the manufacturers trucks on the driving range and had assembled a new ‘set’ from them and had been poised to use it in the first round before his own set turned up at his hotel at 9pm on Wednesday night.
Singh also enthused about the part played by his new caddie, the veteran Dave Musgrove, who caddied for Sandy Lyle when he won both The 1985 Open Championship and the 1988 Masters Tournament. “I am pretty excited about having Dave on the bag,” he said. “He comes with a lot of experience and he told me to stay calm and focussed and we worked well today.”
The Indian seemed poised to take third place on his own but Tunnicliff staged a late revival to join him, the 39 year old Englishman birdieing the seventh hole before carding an eagle three at the ninth, holing from eight feet following a superb drive and five iron second shot which arrowed the centre of the green. "The memories of winning here helped me," he said. "I've always played well here - it suits my game."
While Warren compiled the round of the day, the shot of the day was struck by Frenchman Thomas Levet who aced the 208 yard tenth hole with his very first shot of the day, a five iron tee shot, exactly replicating the start Paul Lawrie made to the tournament in 2000. To date, they are the only players in European Tour history to begin a tournament with a hole in one.
Levet finished with a four under par 69, the same mark as Tournament Chairman Colin Montgomerie. The Scot, who made six birdies, said: “There was nothing to shout home about and nothing to cry about either today. I am very well in contention but I need a good score in the morning. Most of the good scores today came in the morning and I look forward to going out at 8am tomorrow and putting together a half decent score.”
