Who's scared of heights? Not Paul McGinley. Back in 1996, he actually shared the midway lead in the British Open at Royal Lytham and, fired up for this millennium staging on the Old Course, the Dubliner showed considerable composure to open his account with a highly satisfactory three-under-par 69.

You may not think that playing the course on dank and cold October days would be of any benefit on a July day when fairways are brown and greens are as firm as concrete, but McGinley, for one, was thankful for seven Dunhill Cup outings which enabled him to familiarise himself with all its crazy nuances.

"I think all those Dunhill Cups stood to me. Actually, I'm very pleased with that score. Going out, I felt retaining concentration and good course management were the key to producing a good score and, despite those two late bogeys, I believe that I succeeded quite well," said McGinley.

In fact, McGinley yesterday rose to some heady heights again and, after a birdie on the 11th where he hit a seven-iron approach to six feet, he moved to four under par and a share of the lead with Notah Begay.

Back-to-back bogeys at the 16th and 17th - when he three-putted from the front of the green on each occasion - threatened to spoil his round, but he produced a sand wedge approach to 15 feet at the last to finish off with a birdie.

For his part, Darren Clarke described his opening round of two-under-par 70 as "a reasonable start". Clarke, indeed, had the distinction of avoiding every one of the course's 112 bunkers and overcame a three-putt bogey on his third hole to play some solid golf thereafter.

"We played the first seven holes against whatever wind there was and, then, when we stood on the eighth tee, the wind changed, so we managed to play the entire course into the wind which made it quite interesting," said Clarke. "But, then, that's part and parcel of links golf and it makes you concentrate."

Clarke recorded birdies on both par threes - at the eighth, where he put his six-iron in to eight feet, and then he hit a seven-iron to six feet at the 11th - and also added a birdie at the 12th where he drove the green and two-putted.