Slow going as Khan is fined

Khan, who suffered a one-stroke penalty and £2,000 fine at the Volvo PGA championship last year, falls into that category and, having been fined £4,000 during the British Masters at the Forest of Arden last week, his latest offence led to another doubling of the fine. Khan said: "I don't feel I am one of the slowest on tour. I'm told there's a letter in the post explaining my position. I knew I had a bad time last time, but I would liked to have known about the £4,000 fine last week."

Aware that if he crosses the line again the penalty will be £16,000 Khan knows he has to address the situation as a matter of urgency, and he admitted he did not look closely enough at the regulations at the start of the year.

The talk on the eve of the tournament was of how difficult the Colin Montgomerie- designed course was, but with the wind easing the scoring was nowhere near as high as feared by many.

Welshman Dodd, winner of the China Open in November and currently eighth on the Order of Merit, had five birdies and two bogeys, while Swede Eliasson's round included an eagle two on the 338-yard 13th.

Montgomerie had an eagle himself - at the 513-yard 18th and finished with a one-under 71 to be well in the hunt.

Darren Clarke was one better than that, while Padraig Harrington, troubled by a stiff neck this week, finished with two birdies to card a 73 out of what had threatened to be a much worse day.

Steve Webster, one of the European Tour's in-form players, was a non-starter because of severely blistered feet.

The 30-year-old from Warwickshire, who won his first professional title at the Italian Open two weeks ago and was fifth on Sunday, pulled out after the pro-am.

According to a Tour spokesperson Webster very nearly did not play at the Forest of Arden last week because of the problem.

It deals a severe blow to his chances of qualifying for the United States Open at Pinehurst next month.

Webster lies seventh on the Order of Merit with almost £300,000 and the top two - currently South Africans Retief Goosen and Ernie Els - earn spots in the US Open following next week's BMW Championship at Wentworth.

Top amateur ahead of Tiger Woods in the 1995 Open at St Andrews, Webster has played in only one major since, missing the halfway cut back at the Home of Golf five years ago.