Fisher In The Hunt
What were you doing when you were 19? Still struggling to get served? Crashing your first car? Slacking off in your McJob? Then you clearly aren’t Oli Fisher.
Our GOLFPUNK Against The World has decided to be one shot off the lead held by Spanish rookie Pablo Larrazabal after day the first round the French Open.
Fisher ended with a five-under 66, level with Dubliner Peter Lawrie, who is bidding to clinch the first Spanish and French Open double for 24 years.
Lawrie began with a double bogey six but then hit 10 birdies in the next 14 holes at Le Golf National near Paris.
"I hit a lot of good putts and it was a rollercoaster ride," he said.
Oli Fisher, well good at golf.
"When I put my second shot in the water I thought 'you stupid you-know-what'," he added.
"That's not me usually. I'm normally calm and collected - par, par, par and the occasional birdie. Ten in a round is possibly a record for me."
Two more birdies for Lawrie would have matched the European Tour record of Darren Clarke, Fred Couples, Ernie Els and Russell Claydon, but he bogeyed two of the last three holes.
Larrazabal is making his debut in the event as a player after he caddied for his older brother Alejandro.
His own switch to the professional ranks was delayed on the instructions of his father Gustavo, who instead made him work on the family fish farm.
"I was up at 5.30 and had to clean trays and make sure the temperature was right - I was the rookie there," he said.
"He wanted me to know how normal people work for a living."
GP’s next cover star Lee Westwood was back in action on Thursday for the first time since his third-place finish in the US Open and finished level with Colin Montgomerie on two-under par 69.
Ian Poulter, partnering Westwood, returned a one-over 72, but was pleased he had no real problems with his right wrist after pulling out of the US Open during his second round.
"It felt good," he said.
"I had a couple of shots that tested it, but there was one where I could have gone for the green and decided it was not the clever thing to do."
Good luck this afternoon Oli. Let’s hope we haven’t jinked the lad.
6/27/2008 5:23:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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