A relieved Justin Rose stayed on course for a Ryder Cup debut next month with a three under par opening round of 67 at the KLM Open in Holland.
After hardly sleeping during the night - he said his post-dinner coffee "must have been rocket fuel" - Rose was nowhere near as rested as he wanted to be.
But he kept a bogey off his card to be in joint second place midway through the day's play, three behind Dutch pacesetter Rolf Muntz, who shot a brilliant 64.
"I'm looking forward to an afternoon nap," said the World Number 12, who lies eighth in the Cup table.
“I thrive in my sleep so when I got up this morning I knew that it was going to be a long day. But considering all that it was good – I managed to soot 67 with no bogeys which is great. I just think that I managed my game well today.
“I knew that my finish today, the seventh eighth and ninth was a really tough stretch, and I almost accepted the fact that I would drop one there, so to get out of it bogey-free was a result.”
Playing partner Oliver Wilson, who stands ninth on the points list and is also aiming for a first cap, returned a one under 69 - somewhat disappointing given that he was out in front when he covered the back nine in a three under 31.
However, most of the early starters were hit by a lunchtime storm that made conditions far more testing and Wilson dropped shots at the fifth and eighth.
Darren Clarke, in need of a wild card from Faldo, bogeyed two of his last three holes during the worst of the weather, but had reached four under before that and accepted a 68 as still a decent start.
"I'd much prefer to be four under, but it got pretty tricky and we were unlucky to be on two of the most difficult holes at the time," said the Northern Irishman, 40 last week.
England’s Nick Dougherty, who last Sunday got back into the running with a runner-up finish at the SAS Masters in Stockholm, had a less enjoyable time.
Dougherty, 14th in the standings with only next week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles to come, started and finished with a double bogey and could do no better than a three over 73.
On his opening hole the 26 year old lost a ball on his second shot, while at the last - actually the 418 yard ninth - he was short in two, pitched over the green and failed to get up and down.
His second shot on that hole from the left hand rough might be shown on television a few times as it hit a bird minding its own business on the fairway.
Dane Soren Hansen and German Martin Kaymer were both among the afternoon starters.
Former British amateur champion Muntz turned in a two under 34 and then started for home with three successive birdies before adding another on the 16th.
He was in the first group of the day and had completed most of his round when the storm hit.
The Qatar Masters champion of 2000 said: “It was a gorgeous round of golf. It was the kind of round that you plan on paper and it actually works out the way that you planned – it was really nice.
“It reminded me of Qatar a little bit – I think I did a similar thing there. The conditions were very benign in the morning and that’s the way that I know this course. So that helped because on a lot of the holes I knew which clubs to hit, but I actually played better on the back nine when I was four under. I putted well too.”
Rose was in joint second with fellow Englishmen Anthony Wall and Simon Khan, Ireland's Damien McGrane, Welshman Phillip Price and France's Jean-Baptiste Gonnet.
