European Tour: Worksop's Neil Cheetham was one of seven sharing the lead after the first round of the St Omer Open, having carded a three-under-par 68 on the undulating course in northern France.
The 37-year-old, a friend of Lee Westwood as the pair hail from the same club, birdied his last two holes to force himself into contention early on, and on a blustery day no one could better his score.
Having turned in 33, he dropped a shot at the 12th after driving behind a tree, and another at the 13th, but almost claimed those back in one stroke as his tee-shot at the 187-yard penultimate hole finished six inches from the flag.
A 12-foot putt at the last increased the congestion at the top of the leaderboard, but Cheetham was more than satisfied with his morning's work in the co-sanctioned event between the European and Challenge Tours.
"It was very tricky today. If you get anything around three or four under then it is a good score and I'm very happy to start off with," he said.
"I played very solidly, hit the ball well off the tee and did miss a few putts, but the greens are really tough here - they are really difficult to read, especially the two or three-footers.
"I like the course, I enjoy it. Most players when they come here get frustrated with it because it is a frustrating golf course, but if you can keep mentally intact and understand you are going to make a few bogeys, but that there are birdie chances out there, you can do all right."
By contrast South African Hennie Otto, the second-highest player in the world rankings present at 294th, three-putted his last two greens to finish bogey-bogey and surrender what would have been an unassailable lead at five under.
Stephen Browne was best of the Irish contingent after a 71 left him just three shots behind the pack of leaders.
St OmerOpen First Round Scores
(British unless stated, par 71)
68 - Neil Cheetham, Per Nyman (Swe), Raphael Eyraud (Fra), Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Julien Clement (Swi).
69 - Ivo Giner (Spa), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Phillip Archer, Craig Williams, Diego Borrego (Spa), James Hepworth, Jamie Elson, Jamie Little.
70 - Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Sebastien Delagrange (Fra), Matthew Morris, Sion Bebb, Ross Fisher, Mattias Nilsson (Swe), James Heath, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Denny Lucas, Magnus Carlsson (Swe), David Griffiths, Tom Whitehouse.
71 - Stephen Browne (Ire), Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Mark Pilkington, David Dupart (Fra), Mark Sanders, Robert Rock, Shaun P Webster, Stuart Davis, Ben Mason, Gary Orr, Massimo Scarpa (Ita), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Oliver Whiteley, Andres Romero (Arg), Adam Groom (Aus).
72 - Sam Walker, Roope Kakko (Fi), Ariel Canete (Arg), Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), David Orr, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Edward Rush, Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Oskar Bergman (Swe), Knud Storgaard (Den), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Miguel Carballo (Arg), Kalle Brink (Swe), Thomas Nielsen (Den), Stuart Manley, Iain Pyman, Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Garry Houston, Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Lee S James, Rafael Gomez (Arg).
73 - Julien Van Hauwe (Fra), Mark Davis, Paul Nilbrink (Swe), Lewis Atkinson, Tomas Jesus Munoz (Spa), Gareth Davies, Paul Dwyer, Mark Mouland, Juan Abbate (Arg), Van Phillips, James Holmes, Soren Hansen (Den), Raphael De Sousa (Swi), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Marcus Higley, Sven Struver (Ger), John Davies (Den), Gareth Paddison (Nz), Kyle Dobbs (USA), Matthew Blackey.
74 - Alessandro Napoleoni (Ita), Carl Suneson (Swe), Niki Zitny (Aut), Marc Warren, Peter Baker, Lionel Alexandre (Fra), Alvaro Salto (Spa), Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel), Michael Kirk (USA), Michael Hoey (NIre), Martin Lemesurier, Raphael Pellicioli (Fra), Jerome Theunis (Bel), Sebastian Fernandez (Arg), Cesar Monasterio (Arg), Carlos De Corral (Spa), Johan Kok (Rsa), Gary Clark, Massimo Florioli (Ita), Dean Robertson, Gustavo Rojas (Arg), Jeff Hall, Andrew Butterfield.
75 - Jean-Nicolas Billot (Fra), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Marco Bernardini (Ita), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Benn Barham, Eric Moreul (Fra), Sam Osborne, Johan Edfors (Swe), Andre Bossert (Swi), David Higgins (Ire), Laurent Richard (Bel), Toni Karjalainen (Fij), Julien Quesne (Fra), Carlos Quevedo (Spa).
76 - Marco Ruiz (Par), Greig Hutcheon, David Dixon, Kariem Baraka (Ger), Simon Lilly, Paul Eales, Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa), Peter Jespersen (Den), Eric Chaudouet (Fra), Bertrand Cornut (Fra), Lars Brovold (Nor), Kyron Sullivan, Martin Wiegele (Aut), Peter Malmgren (Swe), Francesco Molinari (Ita).
77 - Richard McEvoy, Erol Simsek (Ger), Tuomas Tuovinen (Fi), Tim Rice (Ire), Jean Marc De Polo (Fra), Bruno-Teva Lecuona (Fra), Hernan Rey (Arg), Olivier David (Fra), Brad Sutterfield (USA), Fredrik Widmark (Swe).
78 - Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Oyvind Rojahn (Nor), Liam Bond, Alberto Binaghi (Ita).
79 - Paul Streeter.
80 - Colm Moriarty.
82 - Andre Cruse (Rsa), Manuel Quiros (Spa).
83 - Chris Gane.
Withdrew: Tobias Dier (Ger) 78.
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