Storm played in the 1999 GB&I Walker Cup side

England's Graeme Storm fired a first-round 63 to lead the BA-CA Open by one shot in Austria on Thursday.

Sweden's Martin Erlandsson took 64, while countryman Patrik Sjoland and English pair Tom Whitehouse and Shaun Webster carded 65s in Vienna.

England's Lee Westwood, who won in Spain last month, was in a large group one stroke further back on five under.

But Westwood's Ryder Cup colleagues Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie slumped to two-over 73s.

"I had 34 putts again today and I'm just struggling," said Clarke, who has missed five straight cuts and slipped to 94th in the world from 35 at the start of the year.

"I sound like a broken record at the moment but that's the way I am at the minute."

I wasn't going to come here but I thought I needed to play through the bad spell Graeme Storm

Westwood, the former European number one, bagged seven birdies but said: "You don't often walk off disappointed with a 66 but I am fairly irritated with the way my scoring was.

"It was comfortably the worst it could have been."

Storm, the former British Amateur champion, had missed the cut in his last three events and withdrew from Monday's US Open qualifier at Walton Heath because of his poor form.

"I just thought there was no point going to the qualifier because if I qualified I was probably not going to break 80 the way I was playing," he said.

"It's a long way to go to waste my money.

"It was the right decision to withdraw and I think today has proved that. Ian Garbutt gave me a tip on the range on Wednesday after we both arrived for the pro-am in the same car, and it clearly worked.

"I wasn't going to come here but I thought I needed to play through the bad spell. I had a good start to the season and need to remember that rather than focus on the negatives."