Golf World CupIan Woosnam swapped flip flops for golf shoes in an 11th hour dash to Kiawah Island, South Carolina, circumstances that proved extremely fortuitous for Wales World Cup aspirations. When Philip Price was laid low by flu, Woosnam cut short a family holiday in Barbados.
Flying to Miami on Monday morning he missed his connection, re-routed to Jacksonville and then drove three and a half hours to Kiawah Island. In partnership with Bradley Dredge, the former US Masters champion produced some scintillating golf to help Wales to a four-under-par 68 in the opening day fourball, betterball format.
But even the Welsh had to give second best to the German duo of Alex Cejka and Marcel Siem, who conjured a stunning five-under-par 67 in extremely difficult conditions.
Gusting 30-mile-an-hour winds assailed the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, whipping up the breakers on the Atlantic Ocean, rendering club selection down-wind something of a lottery. Get too close and it was nearly impossible to stop the ball on fast running greens, while to miss the putting surface risked running up some high numbers.
Cejka set the tone with birdies on the second and sixth before his 23-year-old partner, Siem, ranked 296th in the world, birdied seven and eight as the Germans turned in four-under-the-card 32. It was the less celebrated Siem that continued the momentum with a tap-in birdie at the par three, 14th and then finishing pin high, albeit off the green, with a three wood approach to the 16th.
He pitched to about eight feet and holed the putt to nudge the partnership to six under. Both players missed the difficult par three 17th, green, with Cekja lipping out from four feet for bogey and the first dropped shot of the round.
Siem offered this overview of his starring role. "It was a tough start today and I was really nervous on the first tee. It is the biggest tournament I have played since turning professional, so the fact that Alex made a couple of birdies allowed me time to settle into my game.
"I tried to punch my irons because when I hit them high they turned into a draw and this was exaggerated by the wind."
Cejka was fulsome in his praise of his young partner but suggested that all they had made was a good start. "The foursomes format is going to be very difficult and place a premium on playing sensibly and keeping the ball in play. "Anything under par would be a good score."
The sentiment will be shared by all those who tee it up this morning, but one country who won't be there is Chile. A bizarre accident suffered by Felipe Aguilar on Thursday caused him and his partner Roy MacKenzie to withdraw after nine holes of yesterday's round.
Aguilar explained: "On Tuesday evening I was getting into the courtesy van to go to the players' dinner when I slipped and two of my fingers bent all the way back. I never thought it was a fracture, just a muscle sprain but having gone for X-rays was told that I had a broken hand. We asked whether it would be possible to get a replacement but that wasn't allowed. I had to tee it up, having had cortisone and physio and strapped up the hand."
Aguilar only hit one shot by the fourth hole and on the latter took a double bogey. He had a shank and a topped shot and then sensibly retired after nine holes. This sideshow did not affect the Welsh.
Perhaps the pivotal moment of an eventful round for Woosnam and Dredge was when the former holed a chip at the second for a par five. "I hit a monster drive and was a bit unfortunate. I had to cut a six iron round a tree, overhit it a little bit and ended up in the hazard on the right. It didn't come out, I had to take a drop where it crossed the hazard and holed it; a bit of a bonus."
Woosnam birdied the seventh, 10th, 11th, 14th and 16th as the diminutive Welshman relentlessly attacked the pins, making light of the conditions. The French axis of Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin recovered from a mid-round wobble to shoot a three-under-par 69 one clear of Argentina, Paraguay and South Africa.
The highly-rated English pair of Justin Rose and Paul Casey looked to be threatening ominously when at three under but they produced the second worst back nine of the day to come back in 40 shots for a one over total of 73. Rose admitted: "it was a disastrous finish for us. We weren't dovetailing well out there and that is the key to good fourball play."
American favourites Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard who drew the largest of what were meagre galleries fared slightly better, grabbing birdies at two of the last three holes, to finish at one under.
The forecast is for even stronger winds, not good tidings for the players of the ABC blimp, that spectacularly crash-landed late in the day causing spectators to dive for cover. No one lost the tournament yesterday but for Germany and Wales, their exploits have given them a greater margin for error.
