Paul Lawrie and David Drysdale led the Scottish challenge after the first round of the French Open in Paris yesterday.
The duo made solid starts to their campaigns with four- under-par 67s to trail first-round leader Martin Kaymer by five shots following his course record equalling 62.
Marc Warren shot a 68, Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, without a top-10 finish since he was runner-up in this event last year, is a shot further back and Aberdeen challenger Richie Ramsay is on level-par 71.
Press and Journal columnist Stephen Gallacher needs a big improvement in today’s second round after an opening 74.
Blistering heat and a blistered foot served only to bring out the best in young German Kaymer.
The 24-year-old began the French Open with a 62 at Le Golf National – 10 shots better than Padraig Harrington, who now has a fight on his hands to avoid a fifth successive missed cut just two weeks before his bid for an Open championship hat-trick at Turnberry.
So bad was Kaymer’s right foot that as well as being seen by a doctor he had a hole cut in his golf shoe to allow him to play Wednesday’s pro-am.
With the help of his three partners he won that by four with an amazing 16 under par best-ball of 55, but to be only seven worse than that on his own underlined what a massive talent he is.
“I’ve been missing a lot of short putts, but everything came together and I hope it continues,” he said after taking a three-stroke lead over England’s 2006 winner John Bickerton, Thai Thongchai Jaidee, Australian Scott Strange, Swede Peter Hanson and Argentina’s Rafa Echenique, the man who was second to Nick Dougherty in Munich on Sunday after a closing albatross.
“The foot’s still hurting, but I will survive,” added Kaymer.
Kaymer’s round began with a bogey, but after five birdies in the next nine holes he chipped in for eagle at the long third and finished with three more birdies for an inward 30.
Harrington was paired with Ian Poulter, runner-up to him at Royal Birkdale last summer and to Swede Henrik Stenson in May’s US tournament players’ championship in Florida, but they both finished down the field on one over.
Dougherty followed up his win with a 66 but major winners Jose Maria Olazabal, Angel Cabrera and John Daly all fared worse than Harrington.
Daly was already eight over when he quit with a bad back on the 17th, Olazabal had a 74 and the 75 of current Masters champion Cabrera meant he even finished five behind his 20-year-old son Federico.
Scotland's golfers produced a stirring fightback against Sweden to book a semi-final place in the European amateur team championship at Conwy in Wales.
Scott Knowles's side, aiming to win the European crown for the first time since 2001, overturned a 2-0 deficit after the foursomes with a battling singles display to claim a 4-3 victory.
Scotland will now face a testing match with Italy, who romped to a 5