DEFENDING champion Sergio Garcia took the lead on the wind-affected first day of his home Castello Masters, while one of his main rivals is already out of the event.
Because of flight problems, Masters champion Angel Cabrera failed to make it from Bermuda in time, but would have been okay if only play had been suspended 15 minutes earlier.
Garcia was on the 17th hole of his eight-under-par 63 when 40mph gus
ts stopped the action for three hours at lunchtime.
Cabrera's playing partners Martin Kaymer and Gonzalo Fernando-Castano had just teed off, however, and that meant the Argentine had to be disqualified. Cabrera finished second in the 36-hole Grand Slam – the tournament for the season's four major winners – on Tuesday, but then hit problems en route across the Atlantic.
The Argentine had been due to arrive in Spain at around 0530 local time but was delayed. A helicopter was laid on at Valencia airport and a landing arranged at a football pitch near the Mediterraneo course but Cabrera did not make it.
"I did my best and I never once thought about not coming," the golfer told reporters after arriving an hour after his scheduled start. "My son is playing so I wanted to be playing too. And it's such a pity that I missed my chance by about ten or 15 minutes in the end."
Tournament director Miguel Vidaor said: "It was always going to be tight. Everything was done to get him here in time. He was changed and ready to go and even went through customs on the plane."
Cabrera lies ninth on the European money list. He will stay in Spain to play next week's World Matchplay Championship on the Costa del Sol.
Garcia, who is one of the tournament promoters, added: "He gave it his best. We're definitely going to miss him a lot."
Cabrera's absence makes Garcia an even stronger favourite for what would be the first successful defence of his professional career.
Without a top-three finish this year and down from second to tenth in the world, the 29-year-old covered the back nine first in a six-under 29.
He then holed a seven-footer on the first, chipped to within three feet of the flag at the long fourth and on the resumption birdied the 553-yard eighth.
Garcia's only bogey came at the ninth – his last – and he said: "You never like to finish like that, but other than that it was pretty solid and I made some nice putts. We get a wind like that only three or four days a year – and usually on those days we chill at home!"
Like Cabrera, but for a very different reason, Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was left wishing the hold-up had come sooner.
Montgomerie reached four under, but then had three bogeys in four holes. When told by an official after the third of them that conditions were too bad to continue he said: "That's great. The later starters can walk off and we've just played in it. That's okay, is it?"
On his return the Scot parred in for a one-under 70. The eight-times European No 1 has slipped to 254th on the world rankings. He is only 98th on Europe's money list, 38 places adrift of qualifying for the Dubai World Championship finale next month. Afterwards Montgomerie said: "How I am depends on how I am playing. Terrible, terrible, that's how it's been the whole season."
The second half of the field had no hope of completing their rounds before the light went, leaving Garcia with a one-stroke lead over Swede Michael Jonzon.
Jose Maria Olazabal, partnering Garcia, finished strongly for a 65, the same score as Emanuele Canonica, the Italian who caddied for him at The Masters in April.
Jonzon had been joined by Australian Robert Allenby by the time play was called off for the day – and Allenby still had seven holes to play.
German Martin Kaymer, with a definite limp on his return from the surgery he needed in August after breaking toes in a go-kart crash, was going well too at four under after 12.
