Golf: England's Ross McGowan, fighting for his European Tour future, began the Castello Masters with a seven under par 64 in Spain. A year after his bid for a Ryder Cup debut was scuppered by a wrist injury, the 29-year-old is only 163rd on the money list and has slumped from 63rd in the world to 543rd.

Needing things to go his way, he sank his four-iron approach to the 503-yard 17th for an eagle two and also had five birdies in a flawless display that left him two ahead of early leader Fabrizio Zanotti and late finisher Richard McEvoy of England, and three in front of a group that includes Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey, Spain's Sergio Garcia and South African George Coetzee.

Hoey was leading at one point after picking up shots at 11, 13 and 14 to supplement three consecutive birdies from the seventh. However, he dropped back with a bogey and double bogey at 16 and 17, though a birdie at the last meant he signed for a 67.

Damien McGrane is two adrift of Hoey after a 69, while Gareth Maybin and Peter Lawrie are one over and two over respectively. Back-to-back double-bogeys at seven and eight for Shane Lowry set the tone for the rest of his round and depsite a birdie at 13 he signed for a 78.

Garcia was grouped with defending champion Matteo Manassero and England's Tom Lewis - only 18 and 20 respectively - and it was the Italian who made the fastest start with four successive birdies.

But Manassero had to settle for a two-under 69 in the end while Lewis, who captured the Portugal Masters in only his third professional start on Sunday, had a level-par 71.

Garcia was just one over at the turn, but then covered the front nine in a five-under 31 with birdies at the second, fourth, fifth, seven and ninth.

That would have taken him into a share of the early lead with Coetzee but for the fact that Zanotti, chasing his first European Tour title, had five birdies in a row from the 11th in his 66.

Lewis, feeling under the weather with a virus, turned in three over, had four successive birdies from the fifth, but then went over his final green and bogeyed.

Garcia said: "It was a slow start, but the par putt on one (his 10th hole) was huge and then I got going."

McGowan will not be taking anything for granted, however. A fortnight ago he started the Madrid Masters with another 64 and led there as well, only to fall all the way back to 42nd.

Without a single top 15 finish all season he told Sky Sports: "It's nice to be playing well again and up in contention.

"I'm not really thinking about the 'Race to Dubai' at the moment. I'm just trying to play each shot at a time and put up a good result at the end of the week."

On the eagle he added: "I wasn't sure it had gone in. I heard one clap, got up there and found it in the hole."

Colin Montgomerie kept a bogey off his card like McGowan, but only one birdie meant a 70, while playing partner John Daly finished with back-to-back double bogeys for a 73.

Collatede first-round scores, Club de Campo del Mediterraneo, Castellon, Valencia, Spain (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in bold, par 71):

64Ross McGowan

66Richard McEvoy, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par)

67Anthony Wall, Gary Orr, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Danny Willett, George Coetzee (Rsa), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Michael Hoey

68Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Robert Coles, Marcel Siem (Ger), Steven O'Hara, Mark Foster

69 Damien McGrane,James Kingston (Rsa), Scott Strange (Aus), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Mark Brown (Nzl), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Alexander Noren (Swe), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Gregory Havret (Fra)

70Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Scott Jamieson, Anthony Kang (USA), Gary Boyd, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Colin Montgomerie, Matthew Zions (Aus), Brett Rumford (Aus), Carl Suneson (Spa), David Drysdale, Romain Wattel (Fra), Matt Haines, Richard Green (Aus), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita)

71Christian Cevaer (Fra), John Parry, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Floris De Vries (Ned), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Joost Luiten (Ned), Johan Edfors (Swe), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Tom Lewis, Stephen Gallacher, Michael Jonzon (Swe), Keith Horne (Rsa), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)

72Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Robert Dinwiddie, Oliver Fisher, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Alvaro Salto (Spa), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Richie Ramsay, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Gareth Maybin, David Horsey, Rhys Davies, Andrew Dodt (Aus), Seve Benson, Pedro Oriol (Spa)

73George Murray, Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Peter Whiteford, Mark Tullo (Chi), Phillip Price, Nick Dougherty, Peter Lawrie, Graeme Storm, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), John Daly (USA), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Bradley Dredge

74Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Steve Webster, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Stephen Dodd, David Dixon, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Oskar Henningsson (Swe)

75Richard Bland, Daniel Gaunt (Aus), David Howell, Soren Hansen (Den), Oliver Wilson, Lloyd Saltman, Santiago Luna (Spa), Carlos Garcia simarro (Spa), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)

76Richard Finch, Tano Goya (Arg), Kenneth Ferrie, Adrian Otaegui (Spa)

77Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), James Morrison

78 Shane Lowry,Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)

RTD: Martin Pablo (Spa)