Golf NewsDarren Clarke fired an opening round of six under par 66 to share the lead with Japan's Ryoken Kawagishi in the Mitsui Sumitomo Taiheiyo Masters in Japan yesterday.

Clarke was out of the blocks early with birdies at the first three holes at the Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course and added four more birdies before dropping his only shot on the penultimate hole.

Starting from the 10th hole, Clarke holed from 15 feet for an opening birdie. He hit his second shot into a bunker on the par five 11th hole but splashed out to 10 feet and holed the birdie putt before converting from five feet at the next for his third straight birdie.

His only bogey came on the eighth hole when he missed the green with a nine iron from the fairway and failed to get up and down. "I started pretty well, but ended poorly the last couple of holes. I don't know why, probably because of jet lag," said Clarke.

Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood, a three-time champion from 1996 to 1998, was tied for seventh place on 68 with eight Japanese, including local top money earner Shingo Katayama.

Graeme McDowell was also well in contention with an opening round of three under par 69.

Meanwhile in testing conditions only 15 players from a field of 168 dipped below par as the first of six rounds in the European Tour qualifying school final got under way at the San Roque resort in Spain yesterday.

Stephen Browne from Hermitage was the best of the Irish challengers with a one over par 73 on the New Course where Mark Mouland from Wales and Raphael Pelliciolli from France set the pace at three under par 69.

Colm Moriarty and Raymond Burns are on three over par 75.

Good luck messages from International Sports Management stable-mates Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke provided the spur for Simon Wakefield to hoist himself to the top of the leaderboard over the Old Course.

Wakefield who narrowly lost his tour card this season after finishing 118th on the Order of Merit opened with a three under par 69 to lead by two from a group of six on 71.

David Higgins is on three over par 75 but Philip Walton on 76 and Michael Hoey endured torrid openings to their campaigns.

Walton, who holed the winning putt in the 1995 Ryder Cup, spilled three shots on his first three holes but covered the rest in level par while Hoey struggled throughout for his 79.