BBC SPORT | Golf | Green sets the pace

Australia's Richard Green leads the way after the opening round of the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles.

The 31-year-old Melbourne professional set the pace with a seven under par round of 65, one stroke ahead of Sweden's Fredrick Andersson, who bogeyed the last after losing a ball with his second shot.

Eleven players lie one shot further back, including Scottish duo Andrew Oldcorn and Raymond Russell, who were among the early pace-setters.

New date for Gleneagles

Green opened up with a 65 for the second time in successive tournaments having posted his first at Celtic Manor two weeks ago

He said: ""Since the (British) Open I've started to putt pretty nicely."

"I started to line up my body more with the hole, rather than line the putt up and that has freed everything, allowed me to stroke the ball naturally.

"Fortunately this week the greens are nice and true."

Along with England's Ian Garbutt and Australian Ian Gardiner, Oldcorn and Russell took advantage of perfect playing conditions on the Centenary Course, which will stage the 2014 Ryder Cup, to move to the top of the leaderboard.

All four players carded five under par scores of 67.

And another Scot, veteran Sandy Lyle, lies just one shot further back as he battles to earn his card for next season on the European Tour.

My problem this year has been my putting which has been diabolical

Andrew Oldcorn

Pre-tournament favourite Adam Scott, at 61st the highest world-ranked player competing this week, eagled the last to also finish with a 67.

Edinburgh's Russell had made started slowly with one birdie and one bogey in his outward half of 36, but then rolled in five birdies in six holes from the turn to move to five under.

Also starting on the back nine, Oldcorn, the 2001 Volvo PGA champion, overcame bad putting which has plagued him all year to shoot eight birdies.

But he also dropped three shots.

He said afterwards: "My problem this year has been my putting which has been diabolical.

"That's why I'm about 95th in the putting statistics."

Tour trouble

Lyle is in danger of not having playing rights for any tour next season after losing his US Tour card two years ago and having to rely on being in the top 40 of the career money list in Europe.

The 44-year-old currently lies 123rd on the Order of Merit this season and needs to climb into the top 115 to retain his card for the 2003 season.

The former US Masters and Open champion probably needs to earn another �22,000 to do that, equivalent to ninth place this week.

Sandy Lyle shot a 68
Lyle is fighting for his tour card
A bogey on the 12th cancelled out a birdie on the previous hole before he carded four birdies in five holes from the 16th to move to four under.

But while Lyle, without a win in over 10 years, is happy to put together low rounds, he realises the need to keep his week going.

He said: "I've not really played weekends very well, so I tend to think of this day as one where everything went pretty good.

"I just play day to day at the moment but I am starting to put scores together again this year and that is very encouraging.

"Now I want to put them together over all four days," he added.

Down the drain

Lyle's playing partner and defending champion Paul Casey had also been four under after 10 holes before running up a double bogey seven on the par five second hole.

After playing out of the rough on his second shot, Casey couldn't find his ball despite seemingly hitting it toward the middle of the fairway.

After spending the allotted five minutes searching nearby rough the Englishman was forced to declare the ball lost.

But on his way back to play another ball, his original was found to have slipped down a fairway drain which had its plastic cover dislodged.

Had he found the ball before declaring it lost, he would have had a free drop from the obstruction instead of being penalized.

It was bizarre, a one-in-a-million chance

Paul Casey

Casey said: "It was bizarre, a one-in-a-million chance, but it cost me two strokes and put me in a bad frame of mind."

"You shouldn't lose a ball in the middle of the fairway with quite a few people watching."

Bogeys followed at the fourth and fifth and a birdie at the eighth was cancelled out by another dropped shot on his final hole, leaving the Englishman on level par.

The 21-year-old Scottish rookie Marc Warren, who only turned professional last month, found himself at the top of the leaderboard after 14 holes.

A terrific run of four birdies and an eagle saw him one shot off the pace at five under par.

However, the East Kilbride man endured a disastrous final four holes, including two consecutive double bogeys and a closing bogey, to slip back to one under par for the day.


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