Colin Montgomerie was just where he wanted to be on his 500th European Tour appearance as a professional - right at the top of the leaderboard.
Europe's new The Ryder Cup Captain, with only three top ten finishes to his name since the start of last season, raced to five under par after 12 holes of the Open de Andalucia de Golf 09 at a sunny Real Club de Golf de Sevilla.
It put Montgomerie, now a lowly 137th in the world and with no hope of qualifying for the Masters Tournament in two weeks, two ahead of England's John Mellor and John E Morgan, Spaniard José Manuel Lara and Frenchman Jean-François Lucquin, winner of last year's Omega European Masters.
The 45 year old Scot was presented with a cake yesterday to mark the occasion and after blowing out the candles he made optimistic noises about the state of his game. It was not just talk.
Montgomerie birdied four of the first six holes on the back nine and after going in the lake for a bogey six at the long 16th responded by picking up further strokes at the 18th and first.
Putts of 15 and 30 feet found the target there and an 18 footer was needed for par on the next before he bogeyed the 436 yard fourth to slip back to four under.
Montgomerie is the 18th player to reach 500 tournaments on the circuit and of special pride to him is that in 182 of them he had notched top 10 finishes.
The last was his second place to Pablo Larrazabal at last June's Open de France, but he said: "I'd like to get to 200.
"I'm busier than ever, but I'm still competitive enough to be able to contend."
Morgan is the 31 year old from Bristol who has battled with epilepsy to make a name for himself.
This is his first full season in Europe, but he held a US PGA Tour card for a while and lost in a play-off.
He came through last season's Challenge Tour to give himself this chance and after turning in a one over 37 birdied four out of five holes from the 11th.
