Orr finds golden touch in the Alps

Golf

There were three outstanding performances on the opening day of the Canon European Masters 5,000 feet up in the Swiss Alps yesterday.

In the rarefied air - and on greens so bad the tournament was nearly called off last weekend - Scotland's Gary Orr and Scott Henderson returned rounds of 61 and 62 respectively to set the pace, while the Italian Aldo Casera produced a seven over par 78 - which is worthy of mention for the fact that Casera is aged 78 and a winner of the Swiss Open on the course in 1950.

It will be some time before 30-year-old Orr and 27-year-old Henderson can match his age on the golf course, so for them the achievement was to shoot the lowest rounds of their European Tour careers.

Orr's total of 11 birdies was only one short of the tour record, as was his 28 for the back nine. The Surrey-based golfer played that half first and when he turned at seven under par he had visions of becoming the first man ever to break 60 on the circuit.

Orr said: "I thought about it, but when I didn't birdie the first and bogeyed the fourth I knew my really good chance had gone. It's more or less hit and hope on the greens, but I just had a day when I hardly put a foot wrong. Yet I didn't feel I did anything brilliantly."

Henderson, 74th on the Order of Merit in this, his first full season on the circuit, played both halves in 31, grabbing eagles at the driveable 301-yard seventh and then the 520-yard 15th.

Colin Montgomerie, the defending champion, shot 65 to go into joint third place with Ulster's Ronan Rafferty and Spain's Fernando Roca, while Nick Faldo is only a stroke further back.

Of the other Ryder Cup players, Darren Clarke recorded a 67, Ignacio Garrido 71 and Costantino Rocca and Thomas Bjorn one over par 72s - the same as the Ryder captain Seve Ballesteros, who now faces the danger of missing his 13th half-way cut in 15 starts this season.

Casera, who putts one-handed, will almost certainly miss the cut as well tonight but, by recording a score which equals his age, he has achieved something which many players may never do.