Masters. Sergio Suddenly Surprises.

Sergio Garcia suddenly surprised everyone by sharing the first round lead of  the Masters at Augusta National with Aussie Marc Leishman.

Sergio Garcia / Reddington/ Getty Images

Sergio Garcia grabbed a share of the Masters lead on day one of the Masters with Aussie Marc Leishman, both players at -6 under par after their first round scores of 66. Having Sergio’s name at the top of the leaderboard came as a surprise to all the pundits, who were all of the opinion that he hated Augusta National;

” No, I mean, well,obviously, it’s obviously not my favorite, my most favorite place, but we try to enjoy it as much as we can each time we come here. Sometimes it comes out better than others, but today it was one of those good days. And let’s enjoy it while it lasts. But like I said before, every time I tee it off, I try to play as well as I can, hope that my best that week is really, really good, and if I manage to do that, I will have a chance at winning. If my best is not that good, then, I’ll struggle a little bit. Today my best was pretty good, and I’m looking forward to doing the same thing the next three days. We all go through those moments, the beauty and the bad thing about this game is that it can have such highs and such lows, because it’s a lot more mental than some of the other games. So you know, the most important thing is to make sure that you get through those nicely and learn from them. Sometimes I do feel like there is such a thing as being too hyper about something, you’ve still got to keep calm. I still get very excited about playing the game and every single week and trying to win tournaments. It’s obviously not the same feeling that I had when I was 19, 20 or 21. But that’s kind of normal.”

Keep it going tomorrow Sergio.

In third place alone is Dustin Johnson, who came through the first round at -5 under par. Many think that the big hitting American can do well here this week, and his opening round of 67 goes a long way to substantiating those claims.

There are six players tied for fourth spot, they are; David Lynn, Rickie Fowler, Gonzo, Trevor Immelman, Fred Couples and Matt Kuchar. These all had opening rounds of -4 under par, 68.

This is The Masters, so don’t be surprised if this top section of the leaderboard changes dramatically  tomorrow. Bad weather is forecast so anything could happen.

 

 

 

Alstom Open de France, Marcel Siem Wins

Marcel Siem (Getty Images)

Marcel Siem of Germany won the Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National in Paris. It is Marcel’s second European tour win, and he had to fend off a charging Francesco Molinari to get it. Francesco fired a last round -7 under par 64, the lowest round of the week to finish just one shot behind Marcel. The new champion had a very respectable last round of -4 under par 67 in the blustery conditions for his -8 under par total and to lift the trophy. With this win Marcel also gains a place in The Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes, and becomes the third German to have triumphed at this event after Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer. Marcel was extremely happy with his win;

“I’m so happy, this means a lot to me.First, after eight years it doesn’t matter what kind of tournament you won, it’s huge because you’ve got the confidence again. Every time I’ve played consistent golf this year, and there were so many times up there, I couldn’t make it.  Stupid things happened the whole time. It means so much to me to win after that long stretch. It’s all about winning in the end and it puts so much pressure every time you don’t win and people start talking, you will never win again and stuff like that, so it’s very important for me. I love this golf course. I always loved it and I love it even more or even better now. I’m super happy. I was very nervous, I have to say, after 14 when I made the up and down out of the trap. The last stretch is one of the toughest stretches we have on Tour. In Cologne at last month’s BMW International Open, I hit it in the water on seven, when in the last round I was leading.  But I made great golf shots. I hit it close on 15, made a good shot on 16 that wouldn’t drop and even 17, hit the flag. I stayed very calm. That was very nice. Now I’ve got the win it’s going to make me relax a lot more now.”

Francesco enjoyed his unbelievable last round;

” It’s been just an unbelievable day really. I had a really bad start, but two years ago when I finished second here, I doubled the first on the last day. From then on, it was just great golf. I had a couple of good breaks and finally a lot of putts going in the hole. I was in the moment, in the zone and I wasn’t really counting the birdies. The game has been feeling well all week and everything was coming out perfect.”

The home crowd favourite Raphaël Jacquelin claimed the third spot on six under par, with the English trio of David Lynn, Ian Poulter and David Howell a shot further back in fourth place.

The World’s Number Three ranked player Lee Westwood climbed 18 places to 40th with a closing 70, just a  a day after it looked as if he might be pulling out with knee and groin trouble after he slipped walking to the first tee. Lee said;

“The leg is fine , it wasn’t a problem today. “