European Tour:Colin Montgomerie hopes a strong performance at the BMW Asian Open this week will provide a much-needed boost to his spluttering season, but the Scot refused to get too carried away after a bogey-free opening round of 69 saw him among the early frontrunners at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club.
After starting the season with four top-20 finishes on the European Tour, culminating in a tie for sixth at the Johnny Walker Classic at the beginning of March, Montgomerie went on to endure a fairly torrid time in America and came into a tournament which is co-sanctioned by both the European and Asian Tours on the back of a missed cut at the US Masters.
However, the 43-year-old felt returning to the scene of an event where he finished in a tie for third last year would see a return to the form which brought him eight European Order of Merit titles.
"I always feel I can compete," said Montgomerie, who is three shots behind leader Rafael Jacquelin as he bids for a first European Tour title since the Hong Kong Open in December 2005.
"I hadn't been playing well and had a poor month in America. I played 12 rounds there, not one of which was under par, and that was very disappointing.
"But I came here again thinking, 'Okay, I did well here last year so let's see if I can do it again this year'.
"But it's just a decent start. You can't win it on Thursday, you can only lose it, and there are a few people who lost it today because of the difficult conditions.
"I haven't, which is good, and I'm in a position where a good round tomorrow will set me up for a half-decent weekend, so we'll see. But I thought I played well today"
Damien McGrane is also well-placed just a shot behind Montgomerie after an opening round which included a double bogey at the 16th, his seventh, followed by birdies at the third, fourth, seventh and eighth.
Graeme McDowell shot a one-over 73 with two bogeys and a birdie, while Gary Murphy (74) and Peter Lawrie (75) need to improve to survive the cut.
England's Paul Casey opened with a level-par 72 after his preparations were disrupted by a missing suitcase that was due to arrive in Shanghai this morning.
A birdie on the seventh hole was offset by a bogey on the par-five 13th, but the 29-year-old feels he is not out of contention despite trailing Jacquelin by six strokes.
"Six-under is a very good score but I'm not that far out of it," Casey said. "It would've been nice if I could have converted a birdie opportunity at the last, but it's tough out there.
"Conditions are hard but I've got to go out tomorrow and attack it and if the wind is calm in the morning, that would be great."
Jacquelin, who led last week's China Open after two rounds before fading away over the weekend, revealed he has yet to decide how he will approach his second round after firing seven birdies and a bogey in his opening effort of 66 to lead Dane Soren Kjeldsen by one stroke.
"It's always good to shoot low in the first round as it takes a bit of the pressure off and you can relax a bit," said the Frenchman, who also finished second in Portugal at the start of April.
"But I'm going to wait to see how strong the wind will be tomorrow. It will make a big difference to the way I play the holes."
(Brit unless stated, Irish in bold, Par 72)
66 - R Jacquelin (Fra).
67 - S Kjeldsen (Den).
68 - G Flint (Aus), G Havret (Fra), S Lee (Kor).
69 - S Hend (Aus), C Montgomerie, J Park (Kor), T Carolan (Aus), P Hanson (Swe), W Lin (Chn).
70 - E Loar (US), MA Jimenez (Spa), S Dyson, R Sterne (Rsa), D McGrane (Irl), J Backstrom (Swe).
71 - M Pilkington, R Goosen (Rsa), M Brier (Aut), J-F Lucquin (Fra), K Webber (Aus), C Cevaer (Fra), J Suk (Kor), A Kang (US), G Houston (Wal), S Hansen (Den), E Els (Rsa), A Blyth (Aus), M Both (Aus), C Nilsson (Swe), S Barr (Aus).
72 - C Li (Chn), R Gonzalez (Arg), P Marksaeng (Tha), W Liang (Chn), J-F Lima (Por), S Wakefield, M Siem (Ger), A Le Vesconte (Aus), G Rusnak (US), A McLardy (Rsa), M Higley, P Casey, T Wiratchant (Tha), M Mamat (Sin), S Gallacher, S Struver (Ger), S Webster.
73 - G Davies, P O'Malley (Aus), D Griffiths, B Saltus (US), G McDowell (NIrl), J Pagunsan (Phi), S Dodd, G Fernandez- Castano (Spa), K Len (Tpe), C Rodgers, M Huang (Chn), (x) Mu Hu (Chn), J Heath, R Gangjee (Ind), W Lin (Tpe), L Zhang (Chn), M Millar (Aus), K Horne (Rsa), M Warren, P Fowler (Aus), J Sandelin (Swe).
74 - U Park (Aus), Y Ali, A Que (Phi), M Ilonen (Fin), S Yates, G Murphy (Irl), J Kingston (Rsa), M Fraser (Aus), W Wu (Chn), C Devers (US), E Michaels (US), R Cabrera Bello (Spa), R-J Derksen (Ned), B Barham, C Phadungsil (Tha), B Kennedy (Aus), S Hurd, M Pearce (Nzl), (x) J Ye (Chn).
75 - A Romero (Arg), F Minoza (Phi), T Pilkardis (Aus), M Lafeber (Ned), G Emerson, C Rodiles (Spa), S O'Hara, M Cunning (US), A Marshall, P Lawrie (Irl), J Knutzon (US), O Fisher, A Johl (Ind), R Lee (Nzl), B Rumford (Aus), C Plaphol (Tha), G Ghei (Ind), SSP Chowrasia (Ind), K Sullivan.
76 - P Meesawat (Tha), I Steel (Mas), T Oh (Kor), W Lu (Tpe), D Bransdon (Aus), W Deng (Chn), C Kamps (Rsa), S Drummond, T Jaidee (Tha), T Wang (Tpe), M Tunnicliff, S Strange (Aus), C Hanell (Swe), Z Xiao (Chn).
77 - D Chia (Mas), T Bjorn (Den), S Kapur (Ind), R Gibson (Can), R Fisher, L Gao (Chn), W Kang (Kor), R Finch, T Chen (Tpe), A Haig (Rsa), A Rizman (Mas), B Lane, A Groom (Aus), S Gu (Chn).
78 - G Simpson (Aus), S Jeppesen (Swe), Y Huang (Chn), C Nirat (Tha), J Axgren (Swe).
79 - B Hume, T Srirot (Tha), G Storm, Giu-ming Liao (Chn), P Gustafsson (Swe), J Daly (US), L Shang (Chn) 80 W Lu (Tpe), Z Qi (Chn), H Buhrmann (Rsa), J Haeggman (Swe), H Liaw (Chn).
81 - Z Qiu (Chn). 82 - S Zheng (Chn).
83 - Y Tan (Chn).
First Round Scores
