I’m sure you saw as I did that the three best players in the world struggled like hell around a very difficult golf course. Is it unfair? I don’t think so, you just have to be at the top of your game and more importantly play the course with your head like Tiger did. At the end of the day it’s a major and it’s not meant to be easy!
Lee Westwood called the Olympic Club “indescribably” difficult after a first round that saw only six players break par.
Westwood carded a respectable three-over-par 73, but he’s not out of it yet. He’s seven behind the lead but six shots better than fellow countryman and world number one Luke Donald. It was always going to be difficult for Luke, especially as he missed a lot of fairways and just didn’t have the power to recover.
Northern Ireland’s defending champion Rory McIlroy carded a 77.
Westwood said: “It’s set up hard, the greens are very firm, there’s a breeze. It’s a very difficult golf course.”
The 39-year-old, chasing his first win in a major tournament, said “You hit a lot of good drives that don’t end up on the fairways.”
Westwood, McIlroy and Donald, the world numbers three, two and one respectively, were expected to comprise one of the low-scoring threesomes on the opening day. Instead they were collectively 19 over par!
Good luck tonight boys!
