THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CASTELLON, Spain — Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez and Scotland’s Paul Lawrie shot 7-under 64s to share the first-round lead at the Castello Masters.
The leaders shot seven birdies each and kept a bogey off their cards despite the long rough at the Club de Campo del Mediterraneo near Valencia.
England’s David Horsey, the winner of the BMW International in Munich in June, was also bogey-free as he shot a 65 to lie one shot behind the leaders.
Sergio Garcia made a low-key return to competition after a two-month break with an even-par 71, two shots better than compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal, who shot a 2-over 73 in only his second tournament of 2010.
Gonzalez’s round gives him hope of retaining his European playing card for the 12th year running. The Argentine currently lies 125th on the European money list and is without a top 10 finish in the last nine months.
However, he admitted his success on Thursday owed much to a short lesson he received in Spain on Wednesday from veteran Spaniard Olazabal.
"My driving and long game has been in order for some time," said the 41-year-old. "But I have not been scoring well all year because of my putting.
"On practice day Jose Maria gave me a little bit of advice about my putting stroke. He told me I needed to alter my posture and at first what he said was very uncomfortable. But today as the ball started to drop into the hole that discomfort started to disappear."
The slick putting greens also provided the inspiration for Lawrie to shoot his lowest tournament score for over three years.
The 1999 British Open Champion has slipped to 225 in the world and has not won in Europe for eight years, but faced with the fastest greens seen on the European Tour in recent months, Lawrie rose to the occasion with a run of seven birdies in nine holes halfway through his round.
"The greens were great , they were really fast and smooth and when they are like that I tend to putt well," he said. "But when they are that quick you also have to be a bit cautious with putts so they don?t race by the hole."
But while Olazabal helped Gonzalez get to the top of the leaderboard, his own first-round performance in shooting a 2-over 73 was a clear sign that he is short of competitive golf.
Troubled by acute rheumatism, Olazabal is making only his second tournament start in 2010 and he said: "Given the circumstances I played OK. I have not been able to practice for a long time and while I could not say I played well neither did I play badly."