Damien McGrane was unable to carry his recent good form into the BMW Asian Open today, a three-over par round of 75 leaving him well off the early pace in Shanghai.

The Meath man, a runaway winner a last week's China Open, endured a poor start at the Pudong Golf Club, a double bogey at the first setting the tone for a difficult morning's work.

Peter O'Malley secured a one-stroke lead at the end of the day after today carding a five-under-par 67.

Oliver Wilson, Henrik Stenson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Mikko Ilonen all took the clubhouse lead earlier in the day at four under but European Tour stalwart O'Malley carded six birdies and one bogey to take a slender advantage into the second round.

Starting on the back nine, the 42-year-old Australian made the ideal start with four birdies in his first seven holes before dropping a shot on the 18th.

And O'Malley, famous for his stunning 1992 Scottish Open victory at Gleneagles
- when he finished the last five holes in seven under to edge out Colin Montgomerie, was faultless coming home while picking up another two birdies.

"I played very well," said O'Malley. "I drove the ball beautifully. I had one green where I had to chip and missed two more by a foot on the fringe. My iron play was great and I couldn't find any fault with that."

Defending champion Raphael Jacquelin made a bad start to his round with a double bogey on the first and returned to the clubhouse one over while Darren Clarke is the best placed Irish player on one-under.

Peter Lawrie fired a level par round of 72 with Rory McIlroy a stroke further back. Graeme McDowell and Gary Murphy are both on two-over.

Collated Scores (Irish & British unless stated, par 72)

67  Peter O'Malley (Aus)

68  Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Oliver Wilson, Henrik Stenson (Swe)

69  Scott Hend (Aus)

70 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Robert Dinwiddie, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Danny Chia (Mal), Richard Lee (Can), Marcus Fraser (Aus)

71 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Joost Luiten (Ned), John Bickerton, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Miles Tunnicliff, Sam Little, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Andrew Coltart, Scott Strange (Aus), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Chris Rodgers, Darren Clarke, Greg Norman (Aus), Paul Broadhurst, Carl Suneson (Spa), Iain Steel (Mal), Chao Li (Chn), Ross McGowan

72  Zaw Moe (Kor), Ross Fisher, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Peter Lawrie, Peter Hedblom (Swe), David Frost (Rsa), Gerald Rosales (Phi), Scott Barr (Aus), Young-Woo Nam (Kor), Antonio Lascuna (Phi), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Scott Drummond, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Sung Lee (Kor), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Richard Finch

73 Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Zhi-Feng Qiu (Tpe), Mu Hu (Chn), Simon Wakefield, Rory McIlroy, Keng-chi Lin (Tai), Magnus Carlsson (Swe), David Gleeson (Aus), Phillip Price, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Julio Zapata (Arg), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Mong-nan Hsu (Tpe), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Jason Knutzon (USA), Sam Walker, Marcus Both (Aus), Angelo Que (Phi)

74 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Simon Yates, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe), Oliver Fisher, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Sven Struver (Ger), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Adam Blyth (Aus), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Graeme McDowell, Peter Whiteford, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Kane Webber (USA), Gary Murphy, Gui Ming Liao (Chn), Hao Yuan (Chn), Tom Whitehouse, Wook-Soon Kang (Kor), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), David Bransdon (Aus), Barry Lane

75  Wen-zhang Yang (Chn), Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Damien McGrane, Frankie Minoza (Phi), Unho Park (Aus), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Anthony Kang (USA), Iain Pyman, Ming Jie Huang (Chn), Markus Brier (Aut), Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Zane Scotland (Gbr), Garry Houston, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), David Howell, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), Stuart Manley, Adam Groom (Aus), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Gary Simpson (Aus), Paul Lawrie, Mark Brown (Nzl), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)

76  Bryan Saltus (USA), Anda Liu (Chn), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi), Jong Yul Suk (Kor), Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha), Peter Fowler (Aus)

77  Tony Carolan (Aus), Airil Rizman (Mal), Rick Kulacz (Aus), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Keith Horne (Rsa), Ted Oh (Kor), Chen chih Chiang (Tpe)

78  Simon Griffiths, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha), Simon Khan, Anthony Wall, Amandeep Johl (Ind), Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe), Kangchun Wu (Chn), Gavin Flint (Aus), Simon Hurd

79 Ming-hao Wang (Chn), Stephen Scahill (Nzl), Thammanoon Srirot (Tha), Ross Bain

80 Xiong-hui Ye (Chn), Xiao-ma Chen (Chn)

81  Wen-gen Zheng (Hkg)

82 Yong-hong Deng (Chn)

84 Lei Shang (Tpe)