Golf Central

                         Ed "Porky" Oliver: The porky one, third from left, if you couldn't figure it out...

On this day in 1940, Ed "Porky" Oliver made a gaff of catasrophic proportions in the US Open at Ohio's Cantebury Golf Club. After teeing off early with five other golfers to beat an oncoming storm, Oliver finished with a 287 total, a core good enough to tie him for the lead with Lawson Little and Gene Sarazen. However, Oliver started his round 15 minutes before it was officialy scheduled to start, and tournament officials had no option but to disqualify him.

It's fair to say that Jeev Milkha Singh is pretty good at golf. Clearly not content with his opening round of 64, Singh pulled away from the pack at the Austrian Open with a sensational second round 63. "I am very pleased with that," said a modest Singh, who is now 15 under par, four strokes clear ahead of England's Simon Wakefield. The Aussie duo of Mark Brown and Peter Fowler are both one behind Wakefield on ten under par.

Jeev will be looking for his maiden vicory of the 2008 season, and with the form he's already shown this year, he won't get a better opportunity than this to jump onto the winner's circle. However, with players such as Soren Hansen and Graeme McDowell in the hunting pack, tomorrow's final day of play should be exciting.

Things are looking bleek for the Bet Detective; despite being under par, Markus Brier and Santiago Luna will have to shoot in the 50s if they're to win us some money with an each way finish. Still, we live in hope...

                             Pelle Edberg: Since when has Bjorn Borg been a professional golfer?

After a day of waiting, play finally got under way at Fontana GC.... and boy was it worth the wait. Europe's finest shot the lights out of the course during first day's play, with six players sharing the lead after carding a seven under par 64. One of the more familiar names at the top is Jeev Milkha Singh, but a certain Swede called Pelle Edberg has taken our eye. With his penchant for hairbands, not to mention the fact that he's named after the greatest footballer of all time, we should have realised that this guy would be good at golf.

Other players populating the top of the leaderboard are local favourite Martin Wiegele, Christian Nillson, Scott Barr and Gary Murphy. Our picks put in a good performance, with course specialist Markus Brier finishing at three under par, Benn Barham two under and Santiago Luna one over. By the looks of things, however, there'll have to play out of their skins to get in the mix.

Tournament officials have decided have decided to cut the event to 54 holes following the loss of the entire first day of play on Thursday, coupled with the fact that further heavy rain and lightning storms are due to hit the area over the weekend.

                                  J.H Taylor: "It's always the one without a hat that spoils the photo."

Today is a busy day in golf history, so without further ado, let’s crack on with things. You certainly won’t see many leader boards as good as that witnessed on this day in 1900, when the legendary trio of J.H Taylor, Harry Vardon and James Braid finished first, second and third respectively at the British Open at St. Andrews.