David Law in good order after opening 64 at Qatar Masters

Scotland's David Law equalled his lowest score on the European Tour to claim the lead after day one of the Qatar Masters.

Law carded seven birdies in a flawless 64 at Education City Golf Club to finish a shot ahead of England's Richard McEvoy, Italy's Nino Bertasio, Finland's Kalle Samooja and South Africa's Hennie Du Plessis.

“It was a good score,” said the 29-year-old, who also shot 64 in the opening round of last year’s British Masters. “I played really well. Conditions were quite easy but I was happy with my iron play and I holed some putts, which was nice.

“I’ve been guilty over the last few weeks when I’ve had decent rounds going of not finishing them off. I was semi-conscious of sticking with it and trying to go low. I was really happy with how I stuck to my routines, my processes and I came out of it with a good score.

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“I’m a lot more focused on my targets rather than my golf swings. Over the last couple of seasons I’ve been guilty of asking myself why I’ve been hitting bad shots, instead of just going on to hit the next one.

"Over the break we had I sat down with my coach Alan McCloskey and Paul Lawrie, we discussed it and it's all about getting the ball in the hole now, trusting that you've done the hard work and the work's done."

Defending champion Jorge Campillo, who defeated Scotland's David Drysdale in a playoff last year, was part of an 11-strong group on four under par, with Drysdale returning a one-under-par 70.

Former champion Eddie Pepperell, who won the title in 2018 but was disqualified last year, birdied his first four holes before having to settle for a 69 to lie five shots off the lead.

Northern Ireland's Cormac Sharvin posted a one-under 70, while Paul Dunne (74) and Jonathan Caldwell (75) have their work cut out to make the weekend cut after their opening rounds.

On a day of low scoring, 74 players broke par and the final group of Darren Fichardt, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Sebastian Heisele were three, two and one under respectively with one hole to complete on Friday morning.

Leaderboard

British and Irish unless stated, par 71, (a) denotes amateurs. Play suspended due to darkness with one group left to finish the round

64 David Law

65 Richard McEvoy, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Nino Bertasio (Ita)

66 Joachim B Hansen (Den), Thomas Detry (Bel), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Garrick Higgo (Rsa)

67 Jorge Campillo (Esp), George Coetzee (Rsa), Kurt Kitayama (USA), Jeff Winther (Den), Scott Jamieson, Chris Paisley, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Toby Tree

68 Thomas Pieters (Bel), Alexander Bjork (Swe), Shergo Al Kurdi (Jor), Sean Crocker (USA), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Jamie Donaldson, Francesco Laporta (Ita), Jack Senior, Dale Whitnell, Louis de Jager (Rsa)

69 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Antoine Rozner (Fra), Adrian Otaegui (Esp), Steven Brown, Andy Sullivan, Eddie Pepperell, Joost Luiten (Ned), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Jordan Smith, Richie Ramsay, Ignacio Elvira (Esp), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Connor Syme, Sebastian Garcia (Esp), Maverick Antcliff (Aus), Garrick Porteous, Marcus Armitage, David Coupland, Lars van Meijel (Ned), Rhys Enoch

70 Callum Shinkwin, Ross McGowan, John Catlin (USA), Romain Langasque (Fra), Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Stephen Gallacher, Justin Harding (Rsa), Adria Arnaus (Esp), Julian Suri (USA), David Drysdale, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Richard Bland, Cormac Sharvin, Darius van Driel (Ned), Kyong-Jun Moon (Kor), Gregory Havret (Fra), Shiv Chawrasia (Ind), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Niklas Lemke (Swe), Yi-Keun Chang (Kor)

71 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Alexander Levy (Fra), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Haotong Li (Chn), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Oliver Wilson, Grant Forrest, Ricardo Santos (Por), Benjamin Poke (Den), Laurie Canter, Johannes Veerman (USA), Clement Sordet (Fra), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger)

72 Pablo Larrazabal (Esp), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Gavin Green (Mal), Ashley Chesters, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den), Robert Rock, Calum Hill, Adrian Meronk (Pol), Wil Besseling (Ned)

73 Chris Wood, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Aaron Rai, (a) Saleh Al Kaabi (Qat), Matthew Southgate, Zander Lombard (Rsa), Justin Walters (Rsa), David Howell, Joel Stalter (Fra), Robin Roussel (Fra), Matthew Jordan, Oliver Farr, Alejandro Canizares (Esp), Aaron Cockerill (Can)

74 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Scott Hend (Aus), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Ewen Ferguson, Paul Dunne, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)

75 Ayoub Lguirati (Mor), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), James Morrison, Tae-Hee Lee (Kor), Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra), Adrien Saddier (Fra), Jonathan Caldwell, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Lee Slattery

76 Alvaro Quiros (Esp), Ross Fisher, Svn-Hwan Kim (Kor), (a) Ruan Jordaan (Rsa)

77 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), Marc Warren, Daan Huizing (Ned)

78 Renato Paratore (Ita), Oliver Fisher, Carlos Pigem (Esp)

79 (a) Jaham Alkuwari (Qat)

82 (a) Ali Al-Shahrani (Qat)