ANGEL CABRERA was not put off his stride by a trip to the water as he shared the early lead in the French Open at Le Golf National near Paris today.
Last year's US Open champion birdied three of his first six holes before straying into the lake at the dangerous short 16th, but after a double bogey there he grabbed more birdies on three of the next four.
Four under par as a result, Cabrera was
alongside Oliver Fisher, the highly-promising 19-year-old from Essex who in March lost a play-off for the Andalucia Open.
Fisher, who three years ago became the youngest-ever Walker Cup player, birdied the fourth, fifth, 12th and 15th and had still to drop a shot as he entered the closing stretch.
Earlier, a 60ft chip-in on the 12th had helped South African Richard Sterne set the pace, but he followed Cabrera into the water on the 16th and did it again at the 18th to slump to one over. On the same mark was Darren Clarke, who like Ryder Cup team-mate Paul McGinley needs to finish in the top three this weekend to have a chance of avoiding Monday's 36-hole qualifying competition for The Open.
Order of Merit leader Miguel Angel Jimenez was in the lake on both the first and second after turning in a level-par 35 and with seven to go was three over.
Colin Montgomerie's confidence could well have been dented by his slide down and out of the world's top 100 this year, but it is still intact and he was going well at two under after 12.
On his return to the course, Montgomerie was asked if it would be nice to repeat his 2000 victory.
"Yes it would," he replied. "I have won here in the past and I look forward to doing something similar.
"I was 16th last week (in Munich), which is much improved, and I am really looking forward to trying to build on that this week.
"The prize fund is fantastic, we have a good field, a great golf course, probably one of the best we play on Tour with that spectacular finish on 15, 16, 17 and 18."
The Scot, who turned 45 on Monday, was leading entering that closing stretch a year ago, but had two bogeys and was overtaken by England's Graeme Storm.
Back to defend the trophy, Storm was among the later starters along with Lee Westwood and Robert Karlsson, third and fourth in the US Open two weeks ago, and Ian Poulter, who pulled out of Torrey Pines with a wrist injury and could not play in Germany last week either.
Meanwhile, talking of the Open, for each of the last nine years Robert Dinwiddie has tried to make it into the Championship and failed.
However, given the way he played on his US Open debut two weeks ago, after qualifying at the first attempt, the 25-year-old Englishman has good cause for hoping it will be tenth time lucky next Monday at the Sunningdale course. If, that is, the European Tour rookie needs to go there.
Dinwiddie, in contention on the first two days at Torrey Pines before slipping back to 36th, is now at the French Open in Paris.
A top-two finish on Sunday and the Durham golfer, who hit the headlines last month with a course record 63 at Wentworth, could claim one of the two Open spots on offer from a mini Order of Merit which has been running for the past month.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the whole week at Torrey Pines," he said. "I went there expecting the course to be brutally difficult. It couldn't be harder than it was in my mind, so when I started playing it for real it was nothing like as bad.
"That's not to say it wasn't really penal if you went badly off line, but being my first major it was always going to be a good experience and to have a good week made it all the better. I'd love to make it into The Open now. I've been close in final qualifying before and more than anything I remember missing out by one shot for the 2005 championship at St Andrews, Jack Nicklaus's last one."
That was his seventh go as an amateur. The last two have been as a professional, but this year is the first time his world ranking has been high enough to warrant a place in the 36-hole European qualifier where 120 players battle for around 15 places.
No such worries, of course, for Lee Westwood, Robert Karlsson and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Third, fourth and sixth respectively in the US Open and third, second and first on the Order of Merit, their Birkdale spots are safe.
Montgomerie is also qualified for the Open.
The full article contains 821 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
