Ireland's Damien McGrane took a one-shot lead at the Ballantine's Championship yesterday as clicking cameras distracted new world No 1 Lee Westwood during a frustrating first round.
McGrane shot eight birdies on his way to a six-under-par 66 at the Blackstone Golf Club near Seoul, a stroke clear of Chile's Felipe Aguilar, England's Richard Finch and local star Park Sang-hyun. Westwood was three under after 15 holes, but a bogey at the next and a double bogey at the last took him to par 72 for the round.
The Englishman, the first reigning No 1 to compete in golf-crazy South Korea, was followed by an excitable crowd on his round and was twice distracted by clicking cameras on the final three holes.After struggling out of a fairway bunker on the last, the 38-year-old snapped at the packed gallery when a camera noise distracted him as he lined up a tricky bogey putt - which he missed.
But it was all smiles for McGrane, who said: "I holed everything inside 15 feet, so I made two bogeys which were out of nowhere really, but that's golf I suppose," he said. "I made plenty of birdies and I was very satisfied with that, and I putted well today and I had good pace on my putts which is important."
Westwood returned to the top of the rankings with victory at the Indonesia Masters on Sunday and insisted he was not out of the hunt at the Ballantine's, despite ending the first round tied in 35th place.
"I played very nicely and gave myself a lot of chances without really making any putts," he said.
"I hit a lot of good putts, but the greens are very different to what we putt on week in and week out. They are quite slow. You end up bashing them so it's hard to get the ball rolling in the hole."
