Sven Strüver showed his liking once again for mountainous layouts by taking the lead in the Madeira Islands Open BPI – Portugal at Santo da Serra.
The German’s last European Tour victory was a decade ago in the mountains of Switzerland when he claimed the 1998 European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre and he gave another virtuoso performance in the hilltops of Madeira to grab pole position.
The 40 year old carded an excellent six under par 66 to grab a one shot lead over South African Hennie Otto with four players – Swedes Peter Gustafsson and Fredrik Widmark and Frenchmen Grégory Bourdy and Michael Lorenzo-Vera – a further shot adrift.
“I got ahead of myself a little bit at the end and struggled to save par on a couple of occasions,” he said. “It shouldn’t really happen but on the other hand I haven’t been in this position for a long time even though I was in the last group in South Africa this year (the Joburg Open), I hadn’t been there for ten years.
“But now I am setting the pace it is okay but it is one of those golf courses where anything can happen. I was lucky today, I had a few good bounces, but that is the way that golf goes. Everyone has that and you have to take the positives out of it and take advantage.”
Starting at the tenth hole, Strüver certainly took advantage of a great start to his round, rattling in four birdies in his first seven holes to help him reach the “turn” in 33. Turning for home, the birdie assault continued with further gains at the first, third and fifth holes, the last from 16 feet being his longest birdie putt of the day.
Otto just managed to get his round completed as darkness enveloped Santo da Serra and admitted he was delighted to have battled successfully through the worst of the day’s weather.
“It was very tricky out there especially for the afternoon starters,” he said. “There were a few tough holes out there and when a few guys were making a few big numbers in front of our group then we had a lot of long waits.
“But tomorrow I am early so it might be a bit better. But you don’t feel bad about it when you shoot a 67 and if you’d given that to me this morning, I would have taken it.
Of the four players in a share of third place, by far the happiest was Gustafsson who proved he was on the way back to fitness after taking almost five months off from the game to rid himself of persistent neck and hip injuries which plagued his 2007 season.
“I put my clubs aside at the end of last year and decided to do something about it and I have been working out too and for the last few weeks which have helped,” said the Swede, whose first round highlight was an eagle three at the 572 yard 11th.
“I have also been practicing really hard with my new coach and it is starting to feel really good. I am not perfectly where I want to be but we will give it this year and see where I can go next year. Hopefully I can get my card back this year and then we will see what will happen.”
Fellow Swede Widmark did not manage to emulate his compatriot’s eagle but five birdies and only one dropped shot was good enough for the 32 year old – who admitted he will concentrate primarily on the Challenge Tour this year – to get off to a good start.
The two Swedes were joined by two Frenchmen – Bourdy, the winner of the 2007 Mallorca Classic on The European Tour – and Lorenzo-Vera, who topped the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2007 and whose opening round was the most adventurous of the leading contenders, especially his trip round the back nine of the Santo da Serra course which featured four birdies either side of three bogeys in row from the 14th to the 16th.
Elsewhere, the majority of the 144 strong field found the going tough on the undulating 6826 yard course, made harder by the wind and frequent rain storms which swept across the island resort.
One man who felt he was walking on air regardless of the conditions, however, was England’s Ian Garbutt. It had nothing do with his opening 75 and everything to do with the fact he became a father for the second time overnight – a particularly timely arrival for Wednesday was Fathers’ Day in Madeira.
The 36 year old, who narrowly missed out on retaining his card for The European Tour at the end of the 2007 season and who missed the Qualifying School as the result of a virus, had discussed travelling with his wife Zoe who had given him her full backing to fly over and play.
“I played in South Africa at the start of January and I have had about six or seven weeks off since then so I have been at home for a long time,” he said. “With the position that I am in, my wife and I both agreed that I couldn’t afford to miss coming here so we made that decision. I was there for my first child (being born) so we were both more than happy for me to come.
“It was due on Monday the 17th. Zoe gave birth to my son Max on the due date so I was hoping that she might be early with this one. But in the end she was three days late but thankfully everything is well with her and the baby, who we have named Eva.
“I had left my phone on all night last night and I got up to go to the toilet about 2.30am and I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a text from my wife saying that we’d had a baby girl.
“I stopped thinking about it for a minute or something like that on the course today but that was it. It puts things into perspective I suppose when you’re playing a round of golf, that you’ve had a second child.”
Garbutt was presented with a bottle of champagne by Duncan Woolger, General Manager of Santo da Serra at the end of his round to mark the birth.
Due to the fading light, three players failed to complete their first round on Thursday. They will return to complete the first round on Friday morning at 8.30am before beginning round two. The start of round two, however, will begin on time - weather permitting - at 7.50am.
