The Italian Alberto Binaghi, called into the French Open only on Tuesday, took full advantage of the late chance at Le Golf National near Paris yesterday. While Colin Montgomerie's disappointing start to 2000 continued with a 71, Binaghi shot a six-under-par 66 to establish a one-stroke lead over Spaniards Francisco Cea and Fernando Roca.
The 35-year-old from Milan had his bags in the boot of his car ready to depart for the Challenge Tour event in Switzerland when the call came to re-route to France. Scot Gary Orr had decided to stay at home to be with his wife Sarah, who had their first child today, and that opened up a place.
"Now I want to make full use of it," said the man who has had to make eight trips to the European Tour qualifying school in his career and lost his card again last year.
He has never finished higher than seventh in any tournament since making his debut back in 1984, but with nine first-time winners on the circuit already this season he is hoping the trend continues.
"It helps when you see people who have been struggling to win," added Binaghi. "We can all hit the ball, but you have to feel the ability to win inside - and my confidence is not that big. In the last 10 to 12 years I've only had that feeling a couple of times."
He had seven birdies but also three-putted both the sixth for bogey and the long 18th for par. At least that was better than in practice, though, when he hit three balls into the lake on the hole.
Des Smyth and Paul McGinley lead Ireland's challenge after shooting two-under par 70s while Eamon Darcy slumped to a 75. It took Gary Murphy 76 strokes to complete his 18 holes and Philip Walton's woes continued as he could manage no better than a five-over 77.
Putting was Montgomerie's main concern after finishing fifth in the Spanish Open last weekend, and when he opened by sinking a 20footer all was well with the world.
But Europe's number one for the past seven seasons, more than £530,000 behind current Order of Merit leader Darren Clarke, failed to follow it up and again finds himself with ground to make up.
Montgomerie was playing with defending champion Retief Goosen and 1993 winner Costantino Rocca, but they hardly performed like a star group.
Goosen had 73, and Rocca - who has made only one halfway cut in five starts this year - laboured again to a 77.
The top three names on the leaderboard are 176th, 128th and 177th on the Order of Merit. Cea is the European Tour's most accurate driver, but it has not translated in cash terms yet.
Despite leading the "driving accuracy" category last season, he finished 58th on the Order of Merit - and while he leads the category again this year, jointly with John Bickerton, he has yet to record a top-20 finish.
Roca has had 10 visits to the Tour Qualifying School but has also had two runners-up finishes - behind Paul Lawrie in the 1996 Catalan Open and then behind Lee Westwood in the Scandinavian Masters the same year.
England's Brian Davis, winner of the Spanish Open last weekend, shot a 71 and admitted that following his celebrations he struggled both with his swing and his mind.
"I'll take the score, though," said Davis. "I knew the record of firsttime winners is horrendous for the week after and I thought about whether to play at all here."
His runner-up Markus Brier was probably left wishing he hadn't. The Austrian had quadruple bogeys at the 15th and short 16th in a 79.
Ryder Cup Swede Jarmo Sandelin had good cause to remember the day. For the first time in his life he hit all 18 fairways and all 18 greens. "I can't believe it," said Sandelin. With a 68 he lies joint fourth alongside Australians Peter O'Malley and Stephen Allan, Dane Soren Hansen and Open runner-up Jean Van de Velde.
The Frenchman reckoned he nearly produced a Mexican wave among his home fans after finding the green in two at the last.
