"The course was ridiculously difficult this afternoon," said the Ulsterman (below). "It was disappointing.

"It's a fantastic design and then you have new tees and all of a sudden we are hitting three-irons to flags that are completely inaccessible.
"It takes all the fun away and it takes the ability to shoot a good score away.

"People come in to watch us make birdies and unfortunately that's just not happening.

"The greens are rock hard. They are designed to be hit by much shorter clubs than we were having to hit.

"I'm very pleased with my score. I could have let it get away from me and I didn't."

Paul McGinley commented following his 73: "I think they have overdone the new tee boxes – it's become a monster golf course."

First round leader, Jeev Milkha Singh, playing early in the day, had an eventful day on his way to a six under par round of 66.

Singh, who shares the lead with Australian left-hander Richard Green, went from having a near-albatross to tangling with a bush with one hand in his pocket and salvaging par with a 40-foot putt in the space of 30 minutes.

Former Volvo Masters champion Singh hit a three-wood to a foot on the seventh for his eagle, but found the bushes behind the green with his pitch to the 631-yard ninth.

"The first thing was to get a ref to make sure I didn't break any rules," he explained.

"You can't touch anything and that's why I put my hand in my pocket and took it out when I had to grip the club.

"My backswing was about a foot and a half and I was more worried about just hitting the ball. It could have gone anywhere."

He was happy enough with getting it on the green and making the 40-footer was just icing on the cake.

Singh, son of an Olympic running star, has already finished second twice on the European Tour this season.