GOLF: Parnevik profits amid chaos

IT WAS not a normal day at the office for players in the Volvo Scandinavian Masters here yesterday.

Following a delay of four and a half hours because of torrential rain, Jose Maria Olazabal had his worst tournament for seven years, Colin Montgomerie had the almost unprecedented indignity of two double bogeys in a row and Jamie Spence was disqualified for having a bent wedge, which he was puzled to discover when he finished his round.

Derrick Cooper ran out of balls after hitting five in succession into the water at the short 16th and Mathias Gronberg, joint leader in the club house with Brian Davis on 137, was only saved from having a two stroke penalty because of the quick thinking of Olazabal.

It will be touch and go if Justin Rose makes his first halfway cut as a professional. He might have to birdie his last two holes when he joinms 57 other players in completing the second round today.

Not that the home fans minded the chaos. Jesper Parnevik was the leader on the course at eight under par with four holes to play with another Swede, Michael Jonzon, in second place at six under with three to play.

Olazabal followed his first round 79 with a 74 and his 11-over-par 153 was his worst since the Benson and Hedges tournament at St Mellion in 1991. "My driving is terrible"I hit the ball into the trees many times, into the water three or four times or otherwise into the rough," he said.

Yet Olazabal did one thing right during the day. At the long fifth hole, Gronberg was on the fringe in two and Raymond Russell's second shot struck the Swede's ball and knocked it some yards away.

Had Gronberg played the ball from where it lay as he was about to do he would have been penalised two strokes but Olazabal told the Swede to ask for a ruling and the ball was replaced in the original spot on the instructions of the tournament director, Mikael Eriksson.

Montgomerie expects to make the cut after his 74 gave him an aggregate of 144, but his round yesterday was spoiled by two successive double-bogey sixes at the 10th and 11th. "I can't remember the last time I've done that, if ever," he said.