Austrian Open Update: Ireland's Gary Murphy is in a six-way tie at the top of the Bank Austria Open leaderboard at Fontana Golf Club, after he equalled the seven under target set by Swedish pair Pelle Edberg and Christian Nilsson.
Home favourite Martin Wiegele, the tour's qualifying school winner last November, also shot a 64, despite bogeying two of his last three holes.
India's Jeev Milkha-Singh conitnued his risch vein of form to move level with the leaders, as did late finisher Scott Barr of Australia.
Murphy carded a total of eight birdies, four on both the front and back nine, with a bogey on the tenth his only slip-up.
Ballentines Championship winner Graeme McDowell is also in contention after he opened with a four-under 67.
Darren Clarke is one-under-par after a 70, while David Higgins endured a very patchy round but managed to emerge with a level par 71, thanks to birdies at 17 and 18.
Wiegele is aiming to become the third home winner of the event in five years by repeating compatriot Markus Brier's victories in 2006 and 2004.
"I blocked myself out on the bogeys," said Wiegele who dropped shots at the end of his round, "but I'm still happy with a 64.
"Everybody expects a lot from Austrian players but if you play well the spectators can definitely help."
While Wiegele raced out to rack up an eagle and seven birdies, co-leader Edberg relied on a more relaxed approach to card his nine-birdie 64.
"When the weather was bad yesterday I didn't hit a ball," said the Swede. "I played cards instead. Maybe I should do that all the time."
Italy's Emanuele Canonica is a shot behind the leading trio on 65 while two players bound for next week's US Open at Torrey Pines - Dane Soren Hansen (68) and former champion Michael Campbell (69) of New Zealand - are in the chasing pack.
"I just aimed to keep things simple," said Campbell, who has missed six out of eight European Tour cuts this season. "I had a few bad swings early on but I'm heading in the right direction.
"My cup has been definitely full of too much technical stuff, in fact it's been overflowing."
After the postponement of round one due to torrential rain, tournament director, Miguel Vidaor, confirmed plans for the rest of the weekend. "Round one will now be played on Friday, and round two will be played on Saturday.
"With regards to the cut, we will have to make a decision on whether or not we go for four rounds or reduce to 54 holes. If we go for four rounds we will probably have to make the cut for the top 50 players and ties as opposed to the top 65 players and ties.
"If we don't cut to 50 players and ties, we may have to play three rounds. That decision, whether the cut is going to be altered, will be made before the start of the second round.
Collated first round scores in the European Tour Austria Golf Open
(Irish & UK unless stated, Irish in bold, par 71):
64 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Christian Nilsson (Swe), Scott Barr (Aus), Gary Murphy, Pelle Edberg (Swe)
65 Peter Fowler (Aus), Emanuele Canonica (Ita)
66 Richard Bland, Liam Bond, Ian Garbutt, Simon Wakefield, Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Adam Gee
67 Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Graeme McDowell, Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Tim Dykes, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Steven O'Hara, Anthony Wall, Stephen Gallacher, Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par)
68 Chris Gane, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Alex Haindl (Rsa), Garry Houston, Soren Hansen (Den), Paul Waring, Matthew Cort, David Lynn, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Robert Rock, Paul Lawrie, Markus Brier (Aut), Florian Praegant (Aut), Sam Little
69 John Mellor, Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Benn Barham, David Park, Kariem Baraka (Ger), Graeme Storm, Iain Pyman, Lee Slattery, Hernan Rey (Arg), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Scott Strange (Aus), Stuart Manley, Mark Brown (USA), Gareth Paddison (Nzl)
70 Andrew Tampion (Aus), Mark Davis, Robert Coles, Mikko Korhonen (Fin), John Bickerton, Sven Struver (Ger), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Juan Abbate (Arg), Zane Scotland, Roope Kakko (Fin), Peter Baker, David Howell, Ben Parker, Julio Zapata (Arg), Darren Clarke, James Morrison, Carl Suneson (Spa), Andrew Marshall, David Dixon, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Toni Karjalainen (Fin)
71 Rafael Echenique (Arg), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Claude Grenier (Aut), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), David Higgins, Fredrik Widmark (Swe), Craig Lee, Paolo Terreni (Ita), Peter Whiteford, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Andrew Coltart, Kyron Sullivan, Marco Soffietti (Ita), Paul Broadhurst, Jurgen Maurer (Aut), Richard Green (Aus), Chris Lange (USA)
72 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Niki Zitny (Aut), Scott Drummond, Paul Nilbrink (Swe), Kevin Collins (USA), Joakim Rask (Swe), Uli Weinhandl (Aut), Gary Clark, Costantino Rocca (Ita), Sebastien Delagrange (Fra), Tom Whitehouse, Andrew Willey, Santiago Luna (Spa), Thomas Feyrsinger (Aut), Cesar Monasterio (Arg)
73 Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Gustavo Rojas (Arg), Doug McGuigan, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Gary Emerson, Johannes Steiner (Aut), Andrew Oldcorn, Emilio Dominguez (Arg), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Philip Golding
74 Hans Peter Bacher (Aut), Tano Kromer (Aut), Robert McGuirk, Sion Bebb, Tim Milford, Klas Eriksson (Swe), Edward Rush, Daniel DeLeon (USA), Daniel Wardrop
75 Rolf Muntz (Ned), Luis Claverie (Spa), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
76 Clemens Prader (Aut), Alexander Wernig (Aut), Pedro Linhart (Spa), David Drysdale, Steve Alker (Nzl), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Bernard Reiter (Aut)
77 Lee S James, Pablo Martin (Spa), Michael Moser (Aut)
78 Peter Kaensche (Nor), Matjaz Gojcic (Slo), Lee Corfield, Ben Mason, Jerome Theunis (Bel)
79 Scott Henderson
80 Jamie Donaldson
81 Benjamin Palanszki (Hun)
84 Lukas Nemecz (Aut)
