France’s Christian Cévaër rolled back the years to grab an early lead at the Omega European Masters.
The 43 year old, who plans to retire at the end of the season following a catalogue of injury troubles, recorded a hat-trick of birdies from the sixth to reach four under par through eight holes at the picturesque Crans-sur-Sierre.
That put the two-time European Tour winner, whose last top-60 finish came almost 18 months ago, level with India’s Jeev Milkha Singh at the top of the leaderboard in Switzerland.
Singh, who has also had something of a testing year having made only six cuts, made a hat-trick of birdies of his own from the 13th and picked up another shot at the first.
The 2010 and 2011 winners – Miguel Angel Jiménez and Thomas Björn – were joined by England’s Richard Finch, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee on three under.
Defending champion Richie Ramsay was among the afternoon starters.
