Richard Green and Graeme Storm surged to the top of the leaderboard in the Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National after impressive rounds of 65 on day one.
Green, who has yet to register a top ten finish this season, picked up shots at the third and fourth before carding five birdies in six holes from the ninth to move to seven under.
A bogey at the par four 17th took a little gloss off the 40 year old Australian’s round, but he remained in a tie for the lead alongside Storm, who reached the turn in 34 courtesy of birdies at the third and fifth and made up a further four shots on the back nine.
An understandably positive Green said: “I’ve been working hard on my driving lately and putting especially, and it all seems to be coming to nicely.
“I played pretty solid golf last week in Germany (at the BMW International Open) and it's come through this week here, as well.
“I like the layout of the golf course very much, I like the way it plays bouncy. I tend to sort of mentally like difficult golf holes, and I think I focus a little bit harder for that very reason.
“Six under par for me today is a great score, and I'm very happy with the position I'm in. It's given me a lot of confidence to go into the rest of the week.”
Storm won this event in 2007 and said: “There’s always added pressure when you come back because people say, ‘You won on one of the toughest courses in Europe and you obviously like it around that course.’
“I do, without a doubt, but you’ve still got to put the work in and do all the preparation.
“It’s just another week, it’s another tournament and you’ve got to treat it like that, but don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic to always come back and know that you’ve won around here.”
Green and Storm were three ahead of a large group of players, including rookie Matthew Nixon, 22 earlier this month, who briefly moved to five under before bogeys at 13 and 18 stunted his progress.
Jeppe Huldahl, Thongchai Jaidee, Michael Jonzon, Mark Foster, Jeev Milkha Singh, Anthony Wall and Peter Whiteford also carded 68s on the opening day.
Huldahl expressed satisfaction at his efforts, saying: “You always take a score like that around here. I'm really pleased.
“This course is never easy. We had pretty good conditions today, not too much wind, but still, those last four holes, you don't really want to play them even though they are great holes. It is a tough course.”
Last year’s Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie - runner-up three years ago and looking for a top five finish to secure a place in The Open Championship - was going well at two under, but then bogeyed two of his last three for a 71.
Martin Kaymer, another former winner at Le Golf National, could only muster a one over par 72. A top eight finish this week would see the German reclaim the World Number Three ranking from US Open Champion Rory McIlroy.
Defending champion Miguel Angel Jiménez, Italian teenager Matteo Manassero and American Ryder Cup player Bubba Watson were among the later starters.
Damien McGrane, Rikard Karlberg, Jaco Van Zyl and James Ruebotham were all disqualified due to a serious breach of the water hazard rules on hole 18, taking a drop from the wrong place.
