DARREN CLARKE made light of the problems of playing a course without the benefit of a practice round when the Turespana Masters began at Maspalomas yesterday.

He shot a three-under-par 70 to share top Irish honours with Des Smyth as Londoner Brian Davis emerged as the surprise leader of the £350,000 Canaries promotion. Davis, runner-up at last November's Qualifying School, had seven birdies in a faultless seven-under-par 66, one better than a quintet that included Peter Baker and Scot Adam Hunter, who birdied his first five holes.

Seve Ballesteros could manage only a 72, but favourite Jos Maria Olazabal returned a 70 that contained eight birdies and featured only six pars.

Clarke arrived late in Gran Canaria because his wife, Heather, had been suffering from influenza over last weekend. But he was quickly into his stride in the hot sunshine, making the most of his early use of greens that played much better than they looked after seven of them had been scorched by mis-applied fertiliser 10 days ago.

After starting at the 10th, he was in the red at the 12th before making his only serious mistake at the 18th after pulling his drive into palm trees. Clarke tried a brave recovery, but hit a tree and ended with a six on his card.

Clarke ripped into the inward half, holing from 12 feet for an immediate birdie three at the first, then reducing the long fourth and seventh to birdie fours.

"I am not playing as well as I was three weeks ago," he said, "but I am scoring well enough, and that was certainly the case in the Portuguese Open last week."

As he was fourth there, the big Ulsterman won't mind in the least if he can repeat that finish and add another solid quota of Ryder Cup qualifying points to his already impressive total.

Smyth, who was watched by his wife, Vicky, played superbly over the first nine holes, holing from 12 feet at the third and 10 feet at the fifth for birdie threes, and rolling in a third birdie from five yards at the ninth.

But if was a different story on the inward stretch once he had missed from three feet for a fourth birdie at the long 11th. He missed the green at the 12th, and although he sank a 10-yard bunker shot at the 14th to retrieve the error he had no further success.

Padraig Harrington was also below his best despite an encouraging three birdies in his first seven holes. But he too ended his outward half from the 10th with a bogey six after going from one bunker to another.

Birdies at the first and fourth put him back on track, but he was much too strong with his pitch to the fifth, and had a second successive bogey when he three putted the next green. "It was a very poor round," he remarked. "I tossed away a lot of opportunities."

So did Philip Walton in a scrappy finish to his 74 which saw him drop four strokes in three holes, the most destructive errors came at the long seventh, when he took seven after driving into a sandy waste, and putting his third shot over the green into more deep trouble.