Golf-Japan's Iwasaki suffers consecutive nines as Open ends in despair

TROON (Reuters) - Sunday morning hackers watching the professionals often think they are watching a different sport to the one they play but they will identify with Japan's Aguri Iwasaki.

The 26-year-old, who qualified by winning the Japan Open last year, suffered a miserable end to his first Open as he collapsed to 20-over-par 91 on Friday.

He was not the only one to suffer as stiff breezes once again made the testing Royal Troon links treacherous, but his fall from grace was particularly spectacular.

Things were already sliding away from Iwasaki when he approached the 13th tee after a double-bogey at the 12th.

But his round unravelled with a quintuple-bogey nine at the par-four 13th, followed by another a sextuple-bogey nine at the par-three 14th where his tee shot found a deep bunker from which his second escape shot flew the ball to an opposite bunker.

Again it took him two shots to escape and he finally made the putting surface with his seventh shot.

Iwasaki signed off with a triple-bogey seven on the 18th, although by that stage his score had largely become irrelevant.

Incredibly, Iwasaki began his opening round on Thursday with a birdie on his way to a three-over 74 which had given him every chance of making the cut, only for his hopes to be sunk in woeful fashion alongside the Ayrshire coast.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)