Requiring a top-five finish to qualify for next week's British Open, Paul McGinley has some ground to make up after recording a round of one-under on the opening day of the Scottish Open.

It was a disappointing result for the Dubliner after being three-under through six holes and leaves him six adrift of joint leaders Alexander Noren and Thongchai Jaidee.

McGinley has so far failed to qualify for Birkdale but with one place on offer at Loch Lomond may yet scrape in at the last minute.

Graeme McDowell heads the Irish challenge on four-under, while Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane are both a shot further back.

Lee Westwood, meanwhile, described his round as "a miracle" - although mainly because he did not get wet.

Heavy rain overnight and this morning meant the start of play was delayed by 90 minutes, the first shot eventually being struck at 9am in damp, overcast conditions.

Westwood was among the early starters and returned a flawless 67, four-under par, that would have been even better but for seeing his birdie putt on the last lip out from five feet.

But the former European number one was happy simply to stay dry as he finished three behind Jaidee, the Thai player recording a 64 with eight birdies and one bogey to lead by one from former US Open champion Angel Cabrera.

"I would have settled for getting round without getting wet, it was a miracle," said Westwood, third in the US Open last month, just one shot outside the play-off contested by Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate.

"I got up at 5.30am and I can tell you it was hammering it down at 6am and it didn't look good."

As for the round itself, Westwood said: "I played all right, pretty solid. The course held up well, although it was playing about two yards longer than yesterday because that's how far the ball was spinning back in the fairway.

"I felt a bit under the weather, I didn't feel myself. My legs didn't feel very strong but hopefully I can get a good night's sleep tonight."

Playing partner Colin Montgomerie was relatively satisfied with his opening 69, two under par, despite dropping a shot on the par-three eighth the day after revealing he had played it 18 times before his wedding here earlier this year, managing 14 pars and four birdies.

Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els both struggled to live up to their star billing, Mickelson carding a level par 71 and a frustrated Els dropping two shots in his last three holes to finish one over.

"Right now I should not even play tomorrow, that's how I feel," said Els, twice a winner here and third last year. "I played some good stuff and bad stuff and probably could have finished two-under quite easily but it was tough."

Mickelson, who lost in a play-off to Gregory Havret 12 months ago, carded three birdies and three bogeys and said: "I just couldn't get the ball to drop but I fought hard to get it round near par.

"After a three-week lay-off I sometimes have trouble with my putting in the first round back but I'm looking forward to tomorrow and a round in the low 60s can get me back into the tournament."

Collated scores
(Irish and UK unless stated, Irishin bold)

64 Alexander Noren (Swe), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)

65 Angel Cabrera (Arg)

66 Garry Houston, Niclas Fasth (Swe), John Bickerton

67 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Graeme McDowell, Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Johan Edfors (Swe), Sven Struver (Ger), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Richard Green (Aus), Pablo Martin (Spa), Lee Westwood, Thomas Levet (Fra), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

68 Damien McGrane, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Ross Fisher, Robert Dinwiddie, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Oliver Fisher, John Gallacher, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Andres null Romero (Arg), David Drysdale, Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), David Dixon, Gary Murphy, Tom Whitehouse, Ariel Canete (Arg), Mark Foster

69 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Iain Pyman, Gregory Havret (Fra), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Colin Montgomerie, David Howell, David Lynn, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Simon Khan, Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Ian Poulter, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Ross McGowan

70 Anders Hansen (Den), James Kingston (Rsa), Soren Hansen (Den), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Peter Hanson (Swe), Anthony Wall, Rory McIlroy, Marc Warren, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Peter Fowler (Aus), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Marcel Siem (Ger), Phillip Price, Scott Strange (Aus), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Richard Finch, Jamie Donaldson, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Paul McGinley, Richard Sterne (Rsa)

71 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Oliver Wilson, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Peter Lawrie, Simon Dyson, Simon Wakefield, Andrew Oldcorn, Steve Webster, Anton Haig (Rsa), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Peter Baker, Greig Hutcheon, Nick Dougherty, Stuart Manley, Darren Clarke, Jonas Blixt (Swe), Paul Broadhurst, Phil Mickelson (USA), Sam Walker, Barry Lane

72 David Griffiths, Leif Westerberg (Swe), Benn Barham, Sion Bebb, Christopher Hanell (Swe), Graeme Storm, Simon Lilly, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Ernie Els (Rsa), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Adam Scott (Aus), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Matthew Millar (Aus), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Carl Suneson (Spa), Stephen Gallacher, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra)

73 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Gary Orr, Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Lee Slattery, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Alastair Forsyth, Miles Tunnicliff, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Mark Brown (USA), Reinier Saxton (Ned), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Peter O'Malley (Aus)

74 Danny Willett, Scott Drummond, Lloyd Saltman, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Callum Macaulay, Stephen Dodd, Phillip Archer, Michael Jonzon (Swe), Marcus Fraser (Aus)

75 Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Andrew Coltart, Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Sam Little, Bradley Dredge

76 Daniel Chopra (Swe), Peter Whiteford, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), James Kamte (Rsa), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)

78 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)

79 Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Paul Streeter