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| March 15, 2002 | Friday | Zilhaj 30, 1422 |
Swedes share early lead
DOHA, March 14: Joakim Haeggman and Klas Eriksson of Sweden fired six under-par 66s to share the lead at the 1.5-million-dollar Qatar Masters which saw several players stranded midway through the first round following a two hour fog delay.
One shot behind the Swedes in joint second spot were Denmark’s Soren Hansen, England’s Ian Garbutt and Aussie Adam Scott, while Scottish ace Colin Montgomerie shot 68 to share the third place with nine others.
The first round will be only completed on Friday after an unusually thick fog that lasted through the night played havoc with the schedule. Mercifully the much dreaded Shamal wind never materialised as Haegmann and Eriksson shot bogey-free rounds.
Haegmann, who had four birdies on the front nine, was as pleased with his performance as he was with the weather, specially after the fog cleared and the sun shone in its full glory on the Doha Golf Club.
Montgomerie, who is playing in Doha for the first time, too shot a bogey-free round putting him in a good frame of mind, considering his miserable showing in Dubai where he failed to make the halfway cut.
Last year’s winner Tony Johnstone on Zimbabwe, shrugged off a sore left shoulder to shoot a 68 to share third place with Montgomerie, India’s Arjun Atwal, Welshman Bradley Dredge, England’s Sam Walker, Mathew Cort, David Howell and Brian Davis, Denmark’s Anders Hansen and Jean-Francois Remesy of France.
Joint leader Eriksson, who was placed 12th at the Dubai Desert Classic last week was oozing confidence after his round.
First round scores:
66 Joakim Haeggman (Sweden), Klas Eriksson (Sweden)
67 Soren Hansen (Denmark), Adam Scott (Australia), Ian Garbutt
68 Brian Davis, Arjun Atwal (India), Tony Johnstone (Zimbabwe), Colin Montgomerie, Bradley Dredge, Matthew Cort, Anders Hansen (Denmark), Sam Walker, David Howell, Jean-Francois Remesy (France)
69 Daren Lee, Gary Orr, Mark Pilkington, Des Smyth (Ireland), John Bickerton, Erol Simsek (Germany), Simon Khan, Martin Maritz (South Africa), Ross Bain, Mattias Eliasson (Sweden), Gustavo Rojas (Argentina), Henrik Nystrom (Sweden), Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand), Ian Woosnam, Ricardo Gonzalez (Argentina), Charlie Wi (South Korea)—AFP/Reuters
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