Price rolls back the years with fine round.

Byline: Anthony WOOLFORD

WELSHMAN Phillip Price recaptured the form that brought him three European Tour titles and a Ryder Cup berth in 2002, shooting a sparkling four-under-par 68 in the first round of the Johnnie Walker Classic, in Perth, yesterday.

Since capturing the 2003 Smurfit European Open, Price's golf has fallen on hard times, not helped by a disastrous flirtation with the PGA Tour in 2005.

The 42-year-old has crashed to 826th in the world rankings, but turned back the clock to his great money-making years at the Vines Resort yesterday with five birdies and just one dropped shot to be four strokes off the lead held by Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen.

In joint 14th spot, Newport-based Price is comfortably the best Welshman from the three-strong contingent Down Under as Church Village-born Jamie Donaldson fired a 75, while Bridgend's Rhys Davies was even more disappointing, chalking up just one birdie in a poor five-over-par 77.

Meanwhile, Derksen fired the best round of his European Tour career, an eight-under-par 64, to edge a shot ahead of Mardan Mamat of Singapore and Tony Carolan of Australia.

The English pair of Lee Westwood and John Bickerton and Ireland's Damien McGrane carded six-under 66s to create a three-way tie for fourth, while Colin Montgomerie shot a 67 to finish the day tied for seventh with six other players, including Ireland's Peter Lawrie, New Zealand amateur leader Danny Lee and American Anthony Kang, winner of last week's Maybank Malaysian Open.

World No 11 Anthony Kim was a further shot back on 68, while Colombia's Camilo Villegas eagled his final hole for a 72 and Greg Norman posted a three-over 75.

Derksen managed only one birdie on his first seven holes, but the Dutchman reeled off four consecutive birdies from the eighth to 11th to move to five under.

He missed a three-foot birdie putt on the 14th, but made up for that by holing a 25-footer at the next at the beginning of a run of three birdies in the final four holes which put him on top of the leaderboard.

Having missed the cut in Malaysia last week, Derksen was pleased with his strong opening round.

"It's a good start and it's always nice to have, it's as simple as that, but there's a lot of golf to be played," said the Dutchman, who has not won a tournament on the European Tour since the 2005 Madeira Island Open.

"It's a very difficult course. I made three par-fives in two today, but if you're slightly off, you can make some big numbers.

"The wind is a factor so it's still a long way to go."

Mardan birdied three of his last four holes as he finished just a shot behind Derksen on seven under and later paid credit to his caddie, Drew Dubberlin.

"I called him this week because he has lived here before and knows this course better than I do," said the 41-year-old Singaporean.

"He knows where toput the ball, the pin positions and how to read the lines. There's less of a job for me on the golf course and I can just focus on thing the golf ball. I'm a little stubborn, but I do listen to his advice."

Westwood put himself into contention with a strong finish to his round. The world No 12 struggled initially, but came back to birdie four of his last seven holes to put himself into contention.

"I started off hittingacouple of poor shots, a couple of pulls and got away with one, but I corrected the fault," said the 35-year-old, who claimed that he was rolling his club a bit too much on the upswing early on.

"That'swhat I've been good at doing the last couple of years - correcting things pretty quickly and I started hitting good shots after that and I played well for the last 12 holes."

With regular caddie Jason Hempleman unavailable, Montgomerie is using Thomas Bjorn's caddie, Matt Harbour, in Perth this week and he was pleased with the result as he fired six birdies in his opening 67.

"My caddie, Matt, was super today.

Nice lad, and Thomas isn't here this week so I was able to 'borrow' Matt," the Scot enthused.

"My own caddie, Jason, is on paternity leave as his wife just had a baby and it's a shame this is so far away. If it had been in England, he'd probably have attended, but Australia is a long way to come."

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FIRST ROUND DELIGHT: Phillip Price shot a sparkling four-under-par 68 in Perth yesterday