Colin Montgomerie marked his 500th European Tour event as a professional exactly as he hoped - by bursting into the lead at Real Club de Golf de Sevilla.
Four birdies in his first six holes took Europe's new The Ryder Cup Captain to four under par and one in front of Swede Oskar Henningsson, winner of last November's Qualifying School, at the Open de Andalucia de Golf 09.
Montgomerie had only three top ten finishes last season - his worst return since his rookie year in 1988 - and is down at 137th in the World Rankings.
The 45 year old Scot has no chance therefore of making it into the field for The Masters Tournament in two weeks - unless Augusta National suddenly invite him - but he sounded optimistic about the state of his game and backed up his words.
After pitching close at the 422 yard tenth, Montgomerie made a 15 foot putt from the fringe two holes later and then smashed two woods to reach the green at the 517 yard next and two putted.
After a par on the dangerous 14th he picked up a further stroke on the 437 yard 15th.
Henningsson is playing just the ninth event of his European Tour career, but he came through all three stages of the school and had a hat-trick of birdies from the third to be alongside Montgomerie.
Defending champion Thomas Levet, Welshman Bradley Dredge and England's John Mellor shared third place on two under.
