Golf Volvo Masters If not quite battered and bruised, at least not in the physical sense, some tortured souls yesterday wandered in off the course with glazed, faraway looks that would have you believe they were demented.

Of the 54 players who encountered Valderrama's wiles in the first round of the Volvo Masters, only a dozen managed to better its par.

The majority, it seemed, were scarred by their meeting with a course that beguiles and bites in equal doses.

On a day when a swirling wind worked its way through the trees, accentuating the task for the European Tour's elite, Sergio Garcia, as celebrated a Spaniard as there is in the modern game, and his compatriot Jose Manuel Lara, who still doesn't know what it feels like to win a tournament on the circuit, shared the lead after recording opening rounds of four-under-par 67s, which leaves them one stroke clear of Alastair Forsyth and Brian Davis.

For most, though, it was a battle that was lost. Of the four Irish players in the field, not one of them managed to break par: Padraig Harrington, who had a lost ball in his one-over-par 72, was the best of them. Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke signed for 73s, while Paul McGinley was again thwarted in his attempts to conquer the course, this time signing for a 76 that left him the worse positioned of the 12 Ryder Cup players in the field.

Harrington, at least, could reflect on a good ball-striking round that presented quite a number of chances.

"I controlled the ball well off the tee," he conceded.

Yet, his play of the 15th hole, a downhill par three of 225 yards, threatened to leave a sour taste. Level par for his round at that stage, the Dubliner was distracted by someone sticking their head around the advertising hoarding behind the tee just as he hit his tee-shot. The ball, as he put it, "came out like a bullet".

It carried all of 245 yards into bushes, never to be seen again. A double-bogey five resulted.

Coming in, Harrington sought to reduce the damage. But birdie putts on the 16th - from eight feet - and the 17th, from 12 feet, failed to drop. On the last, redemption arrived. He hit a wonderful approach shot in to three feet, and sank the birdie putt.

"I felt really good about where I was putting the ball, it could have been a round of 66 in the blink of an eye," he said.

"The thing is, you can't push it out here. You don't say, 'I'm going to birdie every hole'. You have to be patient, you can't push it.

"But I'm not out of it. The nature of this course is that you never feel like you're out of it. Who's to say four-under won't win this event?"

Indeed, with 54 holes to go, there is much to be played for, and Harrington, among others, knows that.

For this course has the capacity to give, as much as take. Brian Davis, for one, discovered as much yesterday. The Englishman chipped in on two occasions - on the sixth and the 16th - to be among a quartet of players two shots off the pace, among them his compatriot Luke Donald.

Of the two Spaniards to the fore, the element of surprise was that Lara, a 37-year-old who has had to battle for survival for much of his six years on tour, was rubbing shoulders with Garcia.

Indeed, Lara's feat was all the more notable for the fact he was stung by a bee on the fifth hole and required medical attention. By the time he reached the turn, the effects of the sting had worn off, and he proceeded to cover the homeward journey in four-under.

Yet, it's unlikely that Lara's presence will intimidate Garcia. Yesterday, he played quite beautifully. After dropping a shot on the short third, when he hit his tee-shot over the back of the green, the 24-year-old responded by not dropping another shot.

More than that, he rolled in five birdies - on the fourth, sixth, eighth, 11th and 16th - to move alongside Lara into a share of the overnight lead.

"I can't really think of any bad shots that I hit out there today," remarked Garcia.

If that smacked of confidence, it was justified. Some players are intimidated by Valderrama as soon as they walk onto the first tee, others are inspired. Garcia belongs to the latter school of thought.

"I've always enjoyed playing here," he said, "because I feel like you can get away with your ball-striking and you don't have to be thinking that you have to make every single putt. You know, there are some courses where if you don't pretty much make every putt, you don't have a chance of winning. This is not one of them."

Garcia's confidence has been fuelled by his win in the Madrid Open two weeks ago. Next week, he moves back across the Atlantic for the Tour Championship in America, but, as a Spaniard, this event is the one that holds most appeal. For good measure, he believes that his game has moved on significantly since a year ago.

"I'd say my long game was about eight (out of 10) and my short game about two out of 10 a year ago," he mused. "This year, my long game is probably nine, nine-and-a-half, and my short game is the best it has ever been, probably about seven out of 10."

Which would indicate that Garcia has come on a lot in the last year, and that he believes he still has some way to go.

Of course, the immediate test of his game's solidity will come over the next three days as he chases this title he so covets.

Valderrama First round scores

4 under

Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)67

Sergio Garcia (Spa)67

3 under

Alastair Forsyth (Sco)68

Brian Davis (Eng)68

2 under

Jonathan Lomas (Eng)69

Christian Cevaer (Fra)69

Peter O'Malley (Aus)69

Luke Donald (Eng)69

1 under

Bradley Dredge (Wal)70

Peter Hanson (Swe)70

Marcus Fraser (Aus)70

Trevor Immelman (Rsa)70

level

Stephen Dodd (Wal)71

James Kingston (Rsa)71

Terry Price (Aus)71

Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg)71

Ian Poulter (Eng)71

Joakim Haeggman (Swe)71

1 over

Thongchai Jaidee (Thai)72

Paul Casey (Eng)72

Lee Westwood (Eng)72

Padraig Harrington (Ire)72

2 over

Patrik Sjoland (Swe)73

David Park (Wal)73

Soren Kjeldsen (Den)73

Paul Broadhurst (Eng)73

Barry Lane (Eng)73

Richard Green (Aus)73

David Howell (Eng)73

Angel Cabrera (Arg)73

Darren Clarke (NIre)73

Graeme McDowell (NIre)73

Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)73

3 over

Brett Rumford (Aus) 74

David Lynn (Eng) 74

Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74

Scott Drummond (Sco)74

Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra)74

Nick O'Hern (Aus)74

4 over

Eduardo Romero (Arg)75

Miles Tunnicliff (Eng)75

Henrik Stenson (Swe)75

Colin Montgomerie (Sco)75

Thomas Bjorn (Den)75

Thomas Levet (Fra)75

5 over

Martin Maritz (Rsa)76

Phillip Price (Wal)76

Marcel Siem (Ger)76

Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)76

Simon Khan (Eng)76

Paul McGinley (Ire)76

6 over

Stephen Gallacher (Sco)77

7 over

Carlos Rodiles (Spa)78

Anders Hansen (Den)78