McDowell off the pace at Valderrama

Golf:Graeme McDowell opened his defence of the Andalucia Masters with a disappointing two-over-par round of 73 today to leave the world number 15 eight shots adrift of clubhouse leader, Scotland's Richie Ramsay.

The 2010 champion, hoping for a strong finish to the season having failed to taste success at all this year, struggled to get to grips with the Valderrama layout, mixing five bogeys with three birdies.

Ramsay holds a two shot lead over England’s Ross Fisher, the 28-year-old benefiting from a blistering start. Ramsay reached six under through 11 holes before another birdie at the 15th was offset by his only bogey at the par-five 17th.

“Valderrama is the kind of course that suits me,” Ramsay, third at the Castello Masters on Sunday 12 strokes behind Sergio Garcia said. “It’s a shot-maker’s course. You need to manoeuvre the ball right to left or left to right, sometimes you need the low shot or the high one and I feel comfortable doing that.

“I worked out a good game plan with my caddie about how to play it in the wind and it’s always nice to have a 65 around a classic course like this because it’s had the Ryder Cup and so many great champions.”

Out in the first group of the day, the former US Amateur champion went to the turn in a three under 32, then started for home birdie-eagle and picked up another stroke at the short 15th. Ramsay’s only mistake came when he took six on the 536-yard 17th, missing the green with his pitch over the water into the wind.

Fisher, down to 83rd in the world a year after making his Ryder Cup debut and without a top five finish all season, had seven birdies and 10 pars, but also a triple bogey seven. That came on the eighth, at 350 yards the shortest par four on the Spanish course, after his drive hit a tree and went out of bounds.

Garcia threatened to be the story of the day again when he chipped in to match Ramsay’s eagle on the 11th and reached four under, but in the end he had to settle for a one under 70.

Peter Lawrie is tied for fifth alongside Garcia, while Shane Lowry is two shots further back. Gareth Maybin and Damien McGrane, both struggling to retain their European Tour cards for next season, finished on four over and eight over respectively. Paul McGinley (also eight over) and Paul Cutler (five over) also have work to do if they are to avoid missing the cut. .

World number six Martin Kaymer questioned the flag positions. Kaymer came back gamely from a poor start on a soaking Valderrama course to card a level-par 71. But he was unhappy with the way the greens, lashed by heavy overnight rain, were laid out.

"The tour put the pins at the back of the greens when they knew it was going to be soft," the German said. "It made it even tougher. Sometimes you had to spin the ball behind the green to try to get near the pin."

Fourth-placed Kaymer needs to win this week to keep alive his outside hopes of catching Luke Donald at the top of the Race to Dubai money-list and retain his European number one status.

The German, three-over after eight holes, bounced back with three birdies in four holes from the ninth. "I had to tell myself that something around par was going to be a good score and I hit a lot of good shots on the back nine," Kaymer said.