Darren Clarke could feel very happy with the way things went at Carnoustie today, particularly as he so wants to be crowned European number one.
Not only did he open the Dunhill links championship with a five under par 67 to be just one off the pace in the £3 million celebrity pro-am, but also Ernie Els could do no better than 72.
The world number two has a lead of £350,000 over Clarke in the Order of Merit race, but such are the riches on offer these days that the Ulsterman could be £140,000 ahead come Sunday evening.
"It's been one of my goals for a long, long time," he said. And how close he has come to achieving it - second in 1998 and 2000, third two years ago and fourth in 1997.
The only players to beat Clarke's effort were his fellow Irishman Gary Murphy, Scot Simon Yates and Dane Soren Hansen. And of those only Murphy was at Carnoustie, the toughest of the three courses being used for the event.
Yates and Hansen both produced their 66s at St Andrews, while the best scores at Kingsbarns were the four under par 68s of Yorkshire's Simon Dyson and Dutchman Maarten Lafeber.
Clarke said: "I controlled my ball flight very well for the majority of the day and made a lot of chances. It was a good start, but I'm going to have to play exceptionally well to catch Ernie because I'm sure he's going to play exceptionally well too."
It could have been even better, eagle chances from six and 15 feet getting away on the 12th and 14th, but the tap-ins were among six birdies and his only dropped shot came on the short eighth, where he trickled over the green and failed to get up and down.
Ryder Cup team-mate Padraig Harrington watched every shot, but was not inspired by it. The defending champion matched Els' 72 instead and a week on from missing the cut in the German Masters commented: "I'm just not bringing it onto the course at the moment.
"I'm not exactly making it happen, but I'm not getting the breaks either."
Ireland's Des Smyth was also playing Carnoustie and matched Harrington with a level par 72.
Murphy, meanwhile, has already paid eight trips to the tour qualifying school in his career, but does not have to worry about that this season. He is 54th on the money list with over £233,000, much of that coming from fourth place in the Scottish Open.
Back on Tartan turf the Kilkenny golfer, in bed with flu at the start of the week, moved into a share of top spot by holing a bunker shot at the 183-yard eighth, his 17th.
Dubliner Peter Lawrie is just one shot behind Murphy after shooting a superb 67 at St Andrews. At the same course, Paul McGinley fired a 71, Graeme McDowell a disappointing 79 while Ronan Raffery went around Kingsbarns in three-over-par 75.