Smyth survives back scare to outshine his fellow veterans

Your average sportsman does not injure himself while sleeping in a parked car. But then your average sportsman is not a 49-year-old who shoots a 68 to lie one shot off the lead in the first round of the Open.

That, however, is just part of the tale of Des Smyth, the Irish veteran, who was one of an exclusive gang of six who ventured out on this East Lothian links yesterday. It is undoubtedly the first time that Smyth's name has been included in a roll of honour completed by Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman and Bernhard Langer.

What he was sharing in common with that fabulous quintet is that he too was making his fourth appearance in Open Championships held at Muirfield. Unfortunately that is where the similarities end. The European Tour's archetypal journeyman is the only one on that list not to have won a major and whose name is familiar in only the most fanatical of golfing households.

Of the 21 Opens he has qualified for prior to this week, Smyth has missed 14 cuts, his best finish being tied for fourth at Troon way back in 1982. In the three Opens he has played at Muirfield – the first being in 1980 when Justin Rose was not even born – he has never made it to the weekend and in those six rounds never once played to par. Add these statistics to a bizarre back injury he sustained on Monday and you would be excused for thinking that Smyth was merely making up the numbers in the evergreen half-dozen. But you would be wrong. Because along with Sandy Lyle – who also shot 68 – Smyth outscored Watson, Faldo, Norman and Langer with a round that included four birdies and a bogey at the first.

On Wednesday, however, he was not even sure to take part. "My back is stiff and a little bit sore," Smyth said after completing his round in the first group out yesterday. "I did a very silly thing. I had a very long day on Monday and had to stop after playing nine holes as I was just too tired.

"I had to wait for a friend so I put the seat down and laid in the car with one foot over the dashboard. I know I shouldn't have done it, I know, but I fell asleep for about 10 minutes. I woke up and was getting pains up my back and down my legs.

"The physios told me not to play and I didn't at all yesterday. They said something about nerves rubbing up against joint."

These were to be the only nerves Smyth felt all day, something he attributes to the bloom of middle age. "Maybe I am not afraid as I might have been in years gone by. I am performing better than I am expecting to because I am just looking around thinking it is marvellous to be here. I suppose you have to get over 40 to even feel like that."

Last March Smyth became the oldest player ever to win an event on the European Tour – the Madeira Open – and believes his best years may yet be in front of him, especially on the Seniors' Tour from next year. Lyle is too much of a realist to expect the same, especially as he surveys a career that has had two major victories, including the Open title in 1985 at Sandwich.

Lyle's last title on the European Tour was 10 years ago, since when he has been disproving the theory that life begins at 40. Last week at Loch Lomond, however, he turned back the Sandys of time to lie in second place after two rounds.

It was little surprise when the Scot fell away in the third round, but at least the old fires of competitiveness had been stoked. Yesterday, he applied the fire-lighters once again with six birdies, and but for three bogeys his card may have even compared to the one they still speak of in hushed tones here when Lyle defied the howling wind and rain to post one of the greatest ever level-par rounds in 1987.

Birdies at the final three holes brought Lyle the score he deserved yesterday after he hit 12 out of 14 fairways. A 12-foot putt on the 16th was followed by a two-putt birdie on the 17th when he became one of the few on the day to get up to the 546-yard par-five in two.

Then came what Lyle called "the grand finale" when the galleries on the 18th were treated to a glimpse of vintage Sandy.

"A three-iron and then a six-iron into four feet from 200 yards. That's the way to finish a round," he said.

Behind him, Ian Woosnam would have given a lot for such a finale. The Welshman, who is still living under last year's shadow of Lytham, dropped two shots in the last three holes to slump to a 72.

"Did your caddie count the clubs this time?" came the inevitable question. "Of course he did," said Woosnam. Only about 1,000 times.