Defending champion and tournament host Sergio Garcia continued his love affair with Real Club Valderrama as he grabbed a share of the early clubhouse lead on the weather-disrupted opening day of the Andalucía Valderrama Masters hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.
Stormy conditions caused problems throughout the day on Thursday, with all tee times pushed back by two hours before play had even started as inclement weather and lightning hit Real Club Valderrama in the morning.
Play eventually got under way at 10.45am local time - and 2017 Masters Champion Garcia started strongly, carding four birdies and a single bogey in his first 14 holes to move to three under par - but the home crowds saw just four hours of action before the threat of lightning forced another suspension at 2.50pm.
When play resumed at 5.00pm, Garcia safely parred his way home to join Jason Scrivener in the clubhouse on three under.
France's Grégory Bourdy, who needs a strong finish this week to break into the top 116 on the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex, and Englishman Ashley Chesters were another shot better off at the top of the leaderboard with one hole left to play.
Garcia is aiming to make it a hat-trick of Andalucía Masters victories this week and he started well, notching birdies at the 11th and 13th to get to two under.
The Spaniard's second shot at the long 17th landed up against a wall near the 18th tee but he made the most of his break, spinning his low chip shot to within ten feet of the hole to set up a birdie chance.
Garcia was unable to roll in his birdie putt but made up for it at the 18th, holing his long birdie attempt to reach the turn in 33.
And he rolled in from three feet at the second to get to four under before a bogey at the short third saw him slip back.
Garcia safely parred the fourth and fifth before thunder and heavy rain arrived and play was halted.
After play got back under way, Garcia launched his tee-shot at the short sixth to within seven feet of the hole but he was unable to convert his birdie putt and he was overtaken at the summit by Scrivener courtesy of the Australian's birdie at the 16th.
But Scrivener dropped a shot at the next and Garcia parred his remaining few holes as the pair finished a long first day on three under.
After his round, Garcia said: "Any time you shoot under par on this course - it doesn't matter about the conditions - you're happy. So I'm obviously happy about it.
"I saw a lot of great things and a couple of things that we need to improve but overall it was a good day."
