Ireland's David Higgins and Philip Walton are both struggling after the first round of the European Tour final qualifying stage at the San Roque Club in Spain.

Both players were slow out of the blocks after weather forced the postponement of the first round until today, but it is Higgins who is best placed on level-par, seven shots behind Norewegian leader Erik Tage Johansen.  Walton is four-over par.

Higgins played the first seven to par and carded a bogey on the eighth and a birdie on the ninth. An identical sequence followed immediately after the turn and then again on the 15th and 16th for a round of 70.

Walton began promisingly with a birdie on the third but a double-bogey on the fifth, another dropped shot on the sixth and two in a row from the 13th meant he had to sign for a 76.

Johansen leads by three from English amateur Oliver Fisher, Finland's Antti Ahokas and Swede Patrik Sjoland.