Alastair Forsyth was resigned yesterday to using a different set of clubs in the Andalucia Open in Spain that starts today from the ones he used to win the Madeira Islands Open last week.

Alastair Forsyth was resigned yesterday to using a different set of clubs in the Andalucia Open in Spain that starts today from the ones he used to win the Madeira Islands Open last week.

The clubs went missing on the journey home and Forsyth received a telephone message on Tuesday morning that his winning equipment had arrived at Glasgow Airport just as he was boarding his flight to Malaga.

"It was too late to get them into the hold and they are at home now, but between the extra clubs I had at home and assistance from Callaway here I have a set," he said. "It is exactly the same equipment so no excuses.

"Most players have back-up sets nowadays because of things like this. There is also a caddie who takes clubs in a van from tournament to tournament, so you need a set at home as well."

The 32-year-old from Paisley was playing the 6881-yard Aloha course yesterday for the first time since a holiday game about 15 years ago, and he remembers so little that he regarded his round yesterday as playing the course blind.

It is an undulating course that requires precision rather than power and Forsyth, enjoying the spring sunshine with temperatures well into shirt-sleeved 70s, reckoned he would be using his driver only three or four times per round "The rough is thick and really tough so you have to be on the fairways, and if you are there will be a lot of wedge approaches that should make for birdie chances," he said.

Forsyth's victory, even though it came in one of the lesser European Tour events, has given the tour Scots a much-needed lift. "It was a fantastic win. The more the merrier," said Paul Lawrie yesterday, another of the 11 Scots competing this week.

Lawrie has not had his troubles to seek. He pulled out last week after the first round with an ailment in his lower right back. After treatment at home he had hoped to play in yesterday's pro-am to test it out and also familiarise himself with the course, but a snow delay to his flight from Aberdeen on Tuesday meant he missed his connection at Heathrow and didn't arrive until yesterday lunchtime.

"The back's not great but I'm hoping to play tomorrow," he said during a gentle session on the practice range, "and I'll walk the course later with Andy Forsyth, his caddie."

Lawrie will be able to swop tales of woe in the 8.10am group today with Marc Warren, who has just returned from a holiday in the US with flu.

Neither, however, is in as bad a shape as 42-year-old Spanish veteran Jose Maria Olazabal, Nick Faldo's vice-captain in this year's Ryder Cup in September, who is playing his first tournament for nine months this week since he developed an arthritic condition in his shoulders and back.

While a return to a full top-level schedule is still very much in doubt, Olazabal said Faldo has nothing to worry about. "From the neck up I am still bright enough," he assured.

Lee Westwood is defending the title that marked the end of a four-year drought in a tournament that this year brings the European Tour back to the European mainland.