Golf: Buzzing Mark Foster first to emerge from gloom to set early pace in Perthshire

IT was a strange opening day in the Johnnie Walker Championship. First a blanket of fog caused a delay that lasted two hours and 40 minutes. Then, as the sun came out, so, too, did wasps. All sorts of insects, in fact.
They proved troublesome. Ross Fisher, one of the three members of last year's winning Ryder Cup team in the field, was first to report the pesky devils. You could say he was stung into action. Out in 40, he stormed home in 31.

Mark Foster, who set the clubhouse target with a six-under-par 66 over the testing PGA Centenary Course, was bothered by them , too. "I was out with David Howell and Jamie Donaldson and I would say two out of the three backed off every shot," said the Englishman. "They were mainly wasps but there were hovver flies and I even saw a couple of bees."

Over one putt, Foster refused to back off. "I felt good over a birdie putt at the 12th so I hit the ball with one of them one it," he added. "It's going to come off when you hit it anyway - and I just felt in a good place." It was a good decision. The putt dropped for one of eight birdies.

Six of them came on the back nine - his outward half after starting at the tenth. He was out in 30, but it could have been even better. "It could have been a special nine holes," said the 36-year-old. In explanation, he missed a decent birdie chance at the tenth then three-putted the 16th after being "over-aggressive" with an eagle putt.

Foster has played competitively just once in the last six weeks. He warmed up for his event with some social golf in Scotland. "I played at Carnoustie on Sunday, then Kings Course here on Monday and here (the PGA Centenary] on Tuesday - a perfect three days," he reckoned.

His recent light schedule was the result of feeling "a little bit down". That was caused by three decent performances that went unrewarded. He finished third in the BMW International in Germany, was second a week later in the French Open then finished 14th in the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart. He led at some point in all of them. "I had a good run of events yet didn't get into The Open, which was frustrating," he admitted. Did he spend the time off blaming himself for failing to win any of those events? "Not at all," he said. "In Germany, I was a little bit annoyed as I feel I didn't do myself justice. But Sergio (Garcia] went crazy for a few holes.

"I then went to France and was really proud of myself, but things generally didn't go my way. I felt I played as good as I could.

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