Volvo Masters: The race for the European Tour Order of Merit title could hardly be closer with chief protagonists Padraig Harrington and Justin Rose within a shot of each other at the season-ending Volvo Masters. But just as important from a tournament standing, the man they have to catch is overnight leader Graeme McDowell.
And just for good measure 2005 champion and one of this week's invites, Paul McGinley, is McDowell's closest pursuer as the Dubliner commands second on his own on two-under after today's opening 69 left him one shot off the lead.
Harrington is just ahead of Rose on the money list and both trail leader Ernie Els, who opted to compete in Singapore rather than Spain this week. Harrington, like Rose, needs a top three finish on Sunday to go past the Els and keep his order of merit crown.
The Open Champion had a roller-coaster day which included a one-stroke penalty when his ball was blown off its spot after he had addressed it. The incident occurred on the seventh green when Harrington was already two over at the time. However, the 36-year-old came storming back with five back-nine birdies for a battling level-par 71 and a share of fifth spot.
Before the off Rose had been sick with a stomach bug, but even that didn't stop the Englishman securing his first European Tour first hole-in-one.
Surviving on just two energy bars all day, Rose aced Valderrama's 196-yard third and finished the opening round with a one-under-par 70. In difficult windy conditions that left him one ahead of Harrington in joint third and two behind McDowell.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic about that score," Rose said afterwards. "If I had been feeling tip-top it would have been brilliant."
Only four of the 55-strong field broke par of 71, McDowell, McGinley, Rose and Australia's Peter O'Malley (70) who shares third.
McDowell reached the turn in two-under 33 before going on to record a solid back nine in one-under 35. The Portrush pro had six birdies in all and just three dropped shots.
Mathematically the Swedish pair of Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth are the only other players able to win the order of merit race. That, however, was a long shot before today's play and now looks an even longer shot as they carded opening rounds of 76 and 75 respectively.
Collated first round scores in the European tour Volvo Masters, Club de Golf Valderrama, Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
68 Graeme McDowell
69 Paul McGinley
70 Justin Rose, Peter O'Malley (Aus)
71 Ross Fisher, Padraig Harrington, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
72 Anders Hansen (Den), Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer (Ger)
73 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Brett Rumford (Aus), Anthony Wall,
Miguel Angel
Jimenez (Spa), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind),
Thongchai Jaidee
(Tha)
74 Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Oliver Wilson, Simon Dyson, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa)
75 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Soren Hansen (Den), Nick Dougherty,
Simon Khan,
Simon Wakefield, Peter Hanson (Swe), Niclas Fasth (Swe),
Alastair Forsyth,
Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Bradley Dredge, Richard Sterne
(Rsa)
76 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Andres Romero (Arg), Thomas Bjorn
(Den), Ian
Poulter, Phillip Archer, Markus Brier (Aut), Mark Foster,
Henrik Stenson (Swe)
77 Robert Karlsson (Swe), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Peter Hedblom (Swe)
78 Alex Cejka (Ger)
79 Steve Webster, Pelle Edberg (Swe)
80 Paul Casey
81 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Graeme Storm
82 Marc Warren
83 Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Ronan Rafferty, Gregory Havret (Fra)
84 Sandy Lyle