FAMILY CONCERNS have kept Paul Broadhurst out of the chase for a Ryder Cup place in recent weeks, but yesterday he announced he was back in the running after a first round 68 in the Deutsche Bank Open in Hamburg.
Broadhurst, a member of the 1991 European Ryder Cup team at Kiawah Island, has just become a father for the third time and golf had been pushed to the back of his mind.
He is currently 10th in the Ryder Cup table with 211,754 points, but estimates he needs to reach 350,000 by the end of August to be sure of an automatic place. "I will feel that I have blown it if I don't make it now," he added.
The first prize of £125,000 Stg is his immediate target and, after regaining confidence in his driving following a lesson from coach Bill Ferguson, he could be difficult to dislodge from the lead on a course where he was beaten in a playoff by Sam Torrance in 1993.
Despite the bleak weather Barry Lane, Spaniard Miguel Angel Martin and Italian Albert Binaghi shot 69s to share second place, but Paul McGinley was the best of the six Irish contenders with a 72. McGinley failed to get beyond the halfway mark in the English Open and the Volvo PGA Championship, but matched the card despite three-putting three times in the space of five holes on the inward half.
Out in 34, with birdies from 10 feet at the second and eighth, he lost his touch on the more exposed greens of the second nine and took three pulls on the 12th and 14th. Then, after getting home in two at the 15th, McGinley again three putted for a par.
The 10 yard bunker shot he holed at the short 16th partially repaired the damage, but another stroke went astray at the last where he was short with his second into the teeth of the wind and look three to get down from the edge of the green.
Darren Clarke, however, was left wondering whether he had made the correct decision to play this week after his 74. "I could see the shots, but I wasn't able to execute them because I was mentally tired," he said after his struggle to keep control in the boisterous and chilly wind.
He managed admirably for 11 holes (starting at the 10th) to be out in 36 after nine consecutive pars and he then added two more at the start of the inward half. However, just like John Daly 12 months ago, Clarke thought he could cut the corner at the par five third by driving over the bunker guarding the right side of the fairway, not realising how close he would be to the out of bounds line.
And, just like the American, Clarke found his ball six inches the wrong side of the boundary which led to a double bogey seven. He also dropped a shot at the short fifth, where he was caught between clubs, and came up short with a three iron. But he immediately atoned for that mistake with his solitary birdie at the sixth.
There he holed from 25 feet after a full seven iron for his third stroke at 11," par five.
Raymond Burns, who played soundly to finish 14th at Wentworth last Monday, had an almost identical round to Clarke, also driving out of bounds at the third to take a seven. But he birdied two of the last four holes for a 73, which was also equalled by Des Smyth and Ronan Rafferty.
David Higgins opened with a 75 despite starting and finishing with a birdie from eight feet while Ryder Cup captain Seve Ballesteros laboured to a 77 which leaves him likely to miss the cut for the eighth time in 10 starts this year.
