FUERTEVENTURA, Spain, 24 April 2004 — Jose Maria Olazabal’s hopes of a Ryder Cup revival were dashed yesterday when the Canaries Spanish Open favorite missed the cut following another flurry of missed putts. Olazabal’s five-over-par 75 left him six-over-par 146, 16 strokes behind leader David Park of Britain.
It was the putter that betrayed the double US Masters champion most, ending his bid to win his home Open title at the 18th attempt.
Olazabal has missed the cut in the Spanish Open before but this failure could prove to be his costliest yet. He was trying to lift himself from a slump to 138th in the world rankings, 79th on the European money-list and 34th and 24th respectively on the European and world Ryder Cup points tables.
“What can I say? I missed the cut, shot 75, but missed only two greens all day,” said Olazabal. Park, the overnight leader, surged three ahead of Frenchman Christian Cevaer, who had set the clubhouse target of seven-under-par 133 with a second-round 69, with three holes of his round remaining.
Cevaer, twice a tour runner-up, made his latest bid for victory just under a year after sealing his card by finishing second in the British Masters while on a medical extension after breaking an elbow in a snowboarding spill in 2002.
Pampling Takes Lead
at Houston Open
Playing when there was little wind, Australian Rod Pampling breezed to the lead after the first round of the Houston Open. Pampling took advantage of an early tee time Thursday and birdied the first three holes en route to a six-under-par 66 and a one-shot advantage over Chris Riley at the $5 million event.
While wind became a factor later in the morning, Pampling began his round early and quickly moved to the top of the leaderboard. Starting on the back nine, he sank birdie putts of 12 feet.
Pampling completed his bogey-free round with birdies at 15, two and nine. Arjun Atwel of India, Frank Lickliter, Trinidad-born Canadian Stephen Ames, South African Deane Pappas and American Lucas Glover were all two shots off the pace on 68.
