Rain had swept through during Friday night, and stayed around to great the early starters which included Ian Poulter, Darren Clarke and Retief Goosen, all players who should make it into the NEC Invitational (in Akron later this year) by right. The Daily Telegraph British Masters had however, through the quality and depth of its field, become one of the ‘100’ World Ranking points Tournaments of 2004 and as such, its winner would be guaranteed a place in the aforementioned World Championship event.

For Steve Webster, the 2004 Daily Telegraph British Masters has been 27 holes of some of the best golf he can play – and nine of the worst – ‘I should have been 4 or 5 under and instead I miss the cut!’ Starting from the 10th, Steve was one over coming to the 17th, a dangerous par five where some have taken 8 (and more). The Webster play was a driver then a 5 wood to 15ft and an eagle to take him to +1 for the Tournament.

Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters – Day 2 Friday. Past Irish Open winner Patrick Sjoland has been in the doldrums for the three years, having (in his own words) been unable to ‘stop getting head of himself’. Nearly a year working with a psychologist in Sweden showed fruition with a 5th place in Singapore and today he surged to the top of the leaderboard with a 65.

The Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters is in its second year under the auspices of Chubby Chandler and ISM and in just twelve months, it’s become an even bigger Championship with a cracking field and BBC coverage. One of the leaders is an ISM player, David Howell, with a 66 shot in the more benign conditions for the morning starters.

Carly Booth, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Perthshire in Scotland, will take another big step towards golfing stardom when she plays in The Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters PRO-AM alongside a host of celebrities from the world of sport and entertainment at the Marriott Forest of Arden this week (Wednesday 5 May). She will be following the footsteps of the likes of Darren Clarke around the Arden Course, a full preview of which is available later in this feature.

Its stopped raining (for the moment) and the Forest is resembling a US Open set-up course with thick rough not too far off the fairways, rough made all the tougher by lots and lots of precipitation. Welcome to Spring in the UK, and what was the trend for years of the B&H, the European Tour slot that the Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters has taken – was until the last two years when the weather had turned almost summery, with temperatures in the high 60s.

The scoreboard says Warwickshire 10.5, Worcestershire 4.5 but that was not how things looked with 9 holes to go in the afternoon singles. In defence of the Midland League Boys title, this was a great start and it was a fantastic finish by our Boys Team, captained by Mens Trials winner Ben Stafford.