Simon Hurley is so strapped for cash that if he fails to win any money in Morocco this week he will not be able to afford to play professional golf again this year.

Raymond Burns did best of the Irish with a 75, while Gerry Murphy returned a 81 and Francis Howley went one better with an 80.

The 35-year-old from Bristol only made it out to Agadir by putting his air fare and hotel accommodation on his credit card - because he doesn't have to pay that bill for five weeks.

He has been making ends meet by working as an assistant manager at a Bristol Hotel and almost gave up the game he loves.

But Hurley could sleep easy after a four-under-par round of 68 on the Royal Golf Links put him into joint fifth place in the Moroccan Open, just one stroke behind the joint leaders David Park from Wales, Spain's Miguel Angel Martin, Eric Carlberg of Sweden and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Cixous.

Hurley has been dogged by a wrist and arm injury which means he has played a total of just three months' golf in the past three years. He has yet to make a cut on the Challenge Tour this season, missing all five in the events he has played in.

But Hurley found his oasis in the Agadir desert yesterday in his first main Tour event as he made five birdies and just one bogey on a course which proved tough for the majority of the field.

While Hurley enjoyed performing on the bigger stage yesterday, none of the favourites in the weakened field have broken par.

Justin Rose's hopes of following up last week's money-making performance in Austria - where he finished fourth - with another good tournament, suffered a blow as he never recovered from a bogey, double-bogey start on his way to an 11-over-par 83 and he now faces a struggle to avoid missing his 21st consecutive cut on the main Tour.