French Open: John Bickerton revealed that a flash of inspiration on the putting green contributed to him holding the lead after the first round of the French Open.

The veteran English golfer, who won his maiden European Tour title last October, fell just one short of the course record at Le Golf National, but his eight-under-par 63 was good enough to give him a two-stroke lead over 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell.

And it was all down to finding a "feeling" in practice yesterday.

"I just holed a lot of putts and that was the difference," said the 36-year-old, who won the Open de Canarias eight months ago and lost a play-off to Niclas Fasth at April's Andalucia Open.

"The last few weeks I have been struggling and when that happens the rest of your game tends to suffer as well.

"I did some hard work yesterday on the putting green and it paid off. When I played well in Spain I had a feeling, and that clicked yesterday.

"I had the ball in a certain position - it felt like it was back in my stance and it made the difference.

"You get a feeling - it's ever so strange - like you've done it before. You are on the range or the putting green and something clicks and you think 'remember that'. That was the feeling I had yesterday."

It certainly worked as, starting on the back nine, Bickerton had three birdies in a row from the 11th with his longest putt being just 15 feet to turn in 32.

At the 563-yard third he was in trouble off the tee and had to chip out, but he then holed a long birdie putt after hitting a five-iron to 30 feet. He picked up more shots at his next two holes, one from 25 feet and another from 12, before he closed with back-to-back birdies - signing off in style at the last with a 20-footer.

Sweden's Joakim Backstrom did briefly reach eight under after 13 holes but three successive bogeys from the 15th saw him finish with a five-under-par 66.

Padraig Harrington, joint second in last week's rain-delayed Booz Allen Classic in Maryland, fired six birdies in an opening two-under-par 69. Peter Lawrie joins Harrington on 69 while Gary Murphy is on level par 71, Paul McGinley on 72 and Philip Walton on two-over-par 73.

Graeme McDowell, who qualified for the British Open after a play-off at Sunningdale on Tuesday, slumped to a five-over-par 76 with Michel Hoey a shot back on 77.