Phillip Archer today came agonisingly close to the first 59 in the history of the European Tour. The Englishman carded a nine-under-par 60 in the first round of the Celtic Manor Wales Open after his birdie putt on the 18th lipped out.

The 34-year-old from Warrington already had his arm partially raised in salute when the six-foot putt caught the edge of the hole and span out.

Archer faces stiff competition at the top of the leaderboard, with Sweden's Robert Karlsson just one shot behind after a 61.

Two shots back are Frenchman Francois Delamontagne and Scotland's Colin Montgomerie who found his range with a 63, after seven birdies and just the one bogey on the par five third.

Just two weeks after a fourth operation on his left knee, Paul McGinley was back and will be happy enough with a level-par 69.

McGinley pulled out of the Irish Open after 13 holes of his first round a fortnight ago and went straight to a Dublin hospital for an operation to remove a piece of floating bone from his left knee.

With the US Open approaching and the race for Ryder Cup places hotting up, McGinley was determined to make a quick recovery and even considered playing in the BMW Championship at Wentworth last week.

That came a bit too soon for the Dubliner but he came through yesterday's pro-am unscathed and showed no signs of the injury this morning.

Starting on the ninth, McGinley birdied the 18th and the second before double-bogeying the eighth to finish nine off Archer's lead.

Peter Lawrie leads the Irish challenge on three-under-par. The Dubliner shot into an early lead thanks to a hat-trick of consecutive birdies from hole two.  Another birdie on 12 followed before he too stumbled on his second last and dropped a shot.

Other Irish in the clubhouse are David Higgins and Graeme McDowell on one-under-par.