Golf:Simon Dyson has his sights on a third KLM Open title in six years after a 65 at Hilversum on a day delayed first by vandals and then by a flooded course. Four greens were damaged by overnight intruders and, following a 45-minute hold-up to complete repairs, a further three and a half hours were lost because of the weather.
"That's probably the wettest course I've ever played," said Dyson after setting the pace on five under par along with German Marcel Siem.
His two previous victories in the event came at Kennemer in 2006 and 2009, both in play-offs, and with an Irish Open title in the bag this season the York golfer is hoping to make this a year to remember.
He is currently 10th on the European Tour money list and added: "My best finish is eighth and I would love to beat that."
Siem, without a top 10 finish on the circuit for over a year, still has work to do to keep his card at 104th.
He, like Dyson, eagled the long 12th as they moved one ahead of Robert Dinwiddie, who reached six under before running up two late bogeys in the worst of the conditions.
Defending champion Martin Kaymer, runner-up to Thomas Bjorn in Switzerland on Sunday, looked completely out of sorts as he started with a four-over 74.
The delays meant that Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy did not even start until after 5.30pm and had no hope of completing their opening rounds before nightfall.
Westwood bogeyed the fifth and sixth after missing the green both times, but birdied the next two to return to level par before play was called off for the day.
McIlroy also had a sticky start, three-putting the third and remaining one over after eight.
Shane Lowry, Paul McGinley and Michael Hoey were best of the Irish in the clubhouse after 70s, while Damien McGrane carded a 73.
Earlier, Thomas Levet made a successful return from breaking his leg jumping in a lake to celebrate his French Open victory two months ago.
A chip-in birdie on the 18th helped Levet to a one under 69, while Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts shot 70 in his first event since injuring his elbow coming off a scooter just before The Open.
Collated first-round totals, Hilversum, Netherlands (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 70):
Note: Play has been suspended due to bad light.
65Marcel Siem (Ger), Simon Dyson
66Robert Dinwiddie
67Anders Hansen (Den), Oliver Wilson, David Lynn
68Marc Warren, Stephen Dodd, Robert Coles
69Niklas Lemke (Swe), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Jamie Elson, David Dixon, Markus Brier (Aut), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Ralph Miller (Ned), Thomas Levet (Fra)
70Thomas Aiken (Rsa), John Parry, Florian Fritsch (Ger), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Shane Lowry, Dodge Kemmer (USA), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Michael Hoey, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Richie Ramsay, Daniel Gaunt (Aus), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Lloyd Saltman, Seve Benson, Matt Haines, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Alexandre Kaleka (Fra), Paul McGinley
71Sven Maurits (Ned), Phillip Price, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), James Morrison, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Anthony Kang (USA), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Bradley Dredge
72Christian Cevaer (Fra), Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Daan Huizing (Ned), Scott Jamieson, Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Stephen Gallacher, Taco Remkes (Ned), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Ross McGowan
73 Damien McGrane, Joost Luiten (Ned), Ben Collier, Reinier Saxton (Ned), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
74George Murray, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Nicolas Nube (Ned)
75Christian Nilsson (Swe), Soren Hansen (Den), Tim Sluiter (Ned), Tano Goya (Arg)
76Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Steve Lewton, Mark Tullo (Chi)
77Robin Swane (Ned)
78David Law, Elliot Saltman, Manuel Quiros (Spa)
