‘He helped me to realise that my shoulders and the face of my putter were pointing left,’ Langer said. ‘I’ve been missing everything and it couldn’t have got much worse.’The last time Langer had such an extraordinary round was at El Saler, another thoroughbred Spanish course. ‘It would be wonderful to play on greens like this every week,’ Langer said. ‘Conditions were fantastic.’A few tips from the Swede Anders Forsbrand also helped. It helps, of course, when you are putting on greens that are considered to be among the best in the world.Langer compared them, in terms of quality and speed, with those at Augusta National.

This is more than mere coincidence, for the man who tends the greens for the US Masters in Georgia has been contributing to the maintenance of the greens at Valderrama for the Volvo Masters. Yesterday Langer had just 22 putts, eight fewer than in the first round on Thursday when he shot a level-par 71. He had 11 threes, and this over a course that is considered to be Europe’s flagship. ‘I didn’t think a score like that was possible here,’ Langer said.

‘It was a very special round of golf.’
The bane of Langer’s life has been his putting and several attacks of the yips have reduced him to a grotesque style of clamping his right hand on to his left forearm. Langer, who has never won this championship, compiled a score that would have been respectable in a par-three contest. Bernhard Langer played Valderrama yesterday and it was no contest. Langer shattered the course record with a 62 and, at nine under par, he has the lead at the half-way stage of the Volvo Masters Some familiar names, however, are breathing down his neck.

We will soon know whether he has greater faith in Ardiles than Hall did, or whether he has reached the same conclusions.Newcastle’s cult hero, page 46. Now, this season, they head the Premiership.’Ossie was extemely popular in the boardroom,’ Hall said ‘My father liked him immensely and still does. He would love to see him do really well at Tottenham.’So would Alan Sugar, now Ardiles’ chairman at Tottenham. Ossie’s ‘bottle’ had gone.’Ardiles was sacked on the Wednesday and Keegan appointed the same day.Newcastle won their next match 3-0 at home to Bristol City in front of almost 30,000, and Keegan went on to keep them up and steer them to promotion the following season. Kevin Keegan would not have been our manager and the last two years would not have happened.’Ardiles was sacked after a 5-2 defeat at fellow strugglers Oxford United.The match was watched by Hall who said: ‘It was a shameful performance.Definitely one of the worst I have seen from Newcastle in a lot of years as a supporter and director.’Ardiles was summoned to a board meeting on the Monday and asked if he thought he could keep Newcastle up In response, says the article, he shrugged his shoulders ‘That shrug, that gesture, was his death knell,’ Hall said ‘It was obvious we could not keep him. While Ossie Ardiles fights to keep his job as the manager of Tottenham, a senior figure at Newcastle United has been cheerfully relating why they sacked him.