Defending champion Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia opened with five-under 66s, putting them one stroke off the lead on Thursday in the first round of the European Masters.
Peter Hedblom of Sweden also had a 66.
Garry Houston of Wales and former Ryder Cup players Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden and David Carter of England opened with 65s to lead the tournament.
Nineteen other players were within four shot of the lead.
Donald and Garcia are two of the four 2004 European Ryder Cup players in the field. The others are Paul Casey, who shot 67, and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who carded a 71.
The event is the first that counts toward making next year’s Ryder Cup team at the K Club in Ireland.
”I feel I haven’t played a bad round here yet,” said the 27-year-old Englishman, who is based in Chicago and plays mostly in the United States. Last year he shot 67-67-65-66 and won by five strokes. Garcia tied for third a year ago.
”The course seems to suit my game,” Donald said. ”I think the greens are starting to get firmer. They have a lot of little shelves, slopes, hollows and bumps on them, so it’s important to control the distance of your shots into the greens.”
The sunny weather is expected to last, which Donald said would make low scoring difficult.
Garcia started quickly and was five-under after eight holes, helped by a difficult 20-foot chip-in at the third. But he failed to birdie number nine and was slowed with a bogey at 10.
”I was a bit disappointed not to birdie nine after a really good drive,” Garcia said. ”And the three-putt on 10 really stopped my round.”
Casey has endured a tough summer, missing seven cuts since he won in China in March.
”This was a solid round, nothing special. I plodded along nicely and picked up birdies where I could,” he said. — Sapa-AP