Beware the injured golfer is a well-known phrase within the game but Barry Lane gave credence to its validity once again at Gut Lärchenhof when he limped into a six-way share of the first round lead in the Linde German Masters alongside Markus Brier, Marc Cayeux, Bradley Dredge, Andrew Marshall and Peter Senior.
The sextet all carded six under par 66s in scorching conditions at the Cologne course where the mercury in the thermometers nudged 90 degrees at times. And although they were all delighted with their prominence, no-one was more so than Lane who admitted serious doubts about starting the round in the first place.
After jarring his left knee while tinkering with his swing on Tuesday, it caused a year-long injury to flare up again. “When I woke up this morning I said to my wife, I really don’t know if I will be playing today, it was that bad,” said the 45 year old.
“But I took some anti-flammatories and some Nurofen and I played. Hopefully it is going to be all right for tomorrow but you never know. The last time it happened in Ireland and I got round the first round and played one hole of the second round and had to withdraw so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow.”
Lane will be hopeful of continuing for he was in fine form in the first round despite his handicap, rolling in six birdie putts and dropping no shots, the highlight coming at the 241 yard eighth hole, where he fired a superb ‘Heavenwood’ tee shot to a mere inch from the cup.
Joining Lane on 66 was another man delighted to be in a share of pole position, Zimbabwe’s Marc Cayeux. Like the Englishman, Cayeux did not know if he would be playing either, his reason being he was first alternate. But after the withdrawal of Italy’s Emanuele Canonica with a neck injury, he was in and took full advantage.
Cayeux went one better than Lane with seven birdies in total but he did have one blemish on his card, a bogey six at the 583 yard seventh where he overshot the green. “Being here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and not knowing if you are playing or not is a horrible thing,” he said.
“There is always one guy every week who is the first alternate and it not a nice position to be in, but this week it was me. I don’t want to wish upon other people to get sick for me to get in, I want to get in on my merits. But Canonica with his bad neck, I don’t like it, but I got in thanks to him.
“To be honest, the way I felt, I wanted to go home. This morning I even looked on the internet to check my ticket and change it to go back home to Zimbabwe. I have been five months away and haven’t been home and I am really tired. But I’m glad I didn’t now. I was not under any pressure to do well so I just wanted to see where I wanted to go and hit it and it worked.”
Like Lane, Australia’s Peter Senior and Bradley Dredge of Wales did not drop any shots in their opening rounds, Senior saving his best work for the inward half where he garnered five birdies, while Dredge spread his good work equally, with three birdies in each half.
Completing the group at the top of the pile, Austria’s Markus Brier produced the putt of the day on the third hole, holing from 45 feet for an eagle three while England’s Andrew Marshall reserved his best work for the outward half of the Gut Lärchenhof course where he made five birdies to be out in 31.
With the ideal conditions present, it was not a surprise that the scoring on the opening day was as hot as the sunshine, a point underlined by the fact that by the end of the first day, 71 players were under par and 35 were within three shots of the lead.
There were seven players tied for seventh place on 67, a shot adrift of the leading six, and included in that group were Major winners José Maria Olazábal of Spain and the home favourite and co-promoter of the event, Bernhard Langer, looking for his fifth win in the tournament.
