DUTCH OPEN: JUSTIN ROSE has taken another step towards winning his first Ryder Cup cap - but only after a night when he wondered if he was ever going to get to sleep.

Although Dutchman Rolf Muntz was the star of the opening round of the Dutch Open with a six-under-par 64, Rose is among those chasing him hard.

Having pulled out of the FedEx Cup first leg in America to try to clinch his debut, the world number 12 had a bogey-free 67.

"Now I'm looking forward to an afternoon nap," said Rose, joint ninth at the US PGA two weeks ago. "It must have been three o'clock when I got to sleep - I had a coffee at dinner and there must have been rocket fuel in it.

"I wasn't as rested as I would have liked, but I got away with it. I didn't play particularly well, but I guess I managed it well.

"When you are a pro you learn how to make the most of your game when you are not tip-top.

"I'm really pleased - I knew coming here that there would be a lot of attention on the Ryder Cup, but I just had to try to get into the mindset of playing tournament golf."

Starting on the back nine he birdied the 11th, fourth and sixth, and during monsoon-like conditions over the closing stretch scrambled brilliantly to avoid losing ground.

Former British amateur champion Muntz, no longer a European Tour card holder and forced to qualify for the event, was in the first group out, so avoided the worst of the weather.

He still had to capitalise, of course, but did with six birdies.

"It's awesome playing in front of your home crowd and it was a gorgeous round - the kind you plan on paper and it actually works out," Muntz said.

Rose lies eighth on the Ryder Cup table and therefore needs to avoid three players going past him by the end of next week.

The only one of the leading candidates to score better than him was Dane Soren Hansen, in the 10th and last automatic spot a mere €300 ahead of German Martin Kaymer.

Hansen, who made a late decision to enter the tournament because of the Ryder situation, hit back from a double bogey on the ninth with what he called a "spectacular" inward 30 and shares second place with England's John Bickerton.

Oliver Wilson, lying ninth in the race and playing with Rose, led when he turned in 31, but in the end had to settle for a one-under 69.

Kaymer could do no better than 72, while defending champion Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty, 13th and 14th, both double-bogeyed the ninth and 10th in rounds of 70 and 73 respectively.

Damien McGrane was best of the Irish, in the large group along side Rose on three under, after four birdies and one bogey, at the 17th, his eighth.

One shot back is Darren Clarke after a 68 which promised to be even better.

Clarke had reached four under, but then dropped shots at the seventh and eighth, having started at the 10th.

But those bogeys came in the worst of the weather on two of the toughest holes and the Ulsterman, 40 last week, still entertains hopes of a wild card from captain Nick Faldo.

The 562-yard seventh, where he ran up a six, was an absolute brute into the wind.

Clarke is 25th on the cup table and with the top 10 earning automatic places in Faldo's team after next week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles he already requires another wild card.

"I've got to play well," he had said on the eve of the Kennemer event. "I'm desperate to make it - I'd love to - but if I don't play well these two weeks I'd have no complaints if I don't get picked."

Clarke almost eagled the long 12th, his third, bogeyed the 473-yard 16th after pulling his drive, but then birdied the 17th, second, third and 363-yard sixth - the last of them just as a rainstorm and fierce winds arrived.

"I'd much prefer to be four under, but it got pretty tricky and we were unlucky to be on two of the most difficult holes at the time," said Clarke.

Paul McGinley shot a one-under 69 to be sharing 27th place.

But Gary Murphy, after a 72, and Rory McIlroy after a four-over 74 have work to do to survive today's cut.

McIlroy, who also started at the 10th, went out in one-over 35. But the teenager then recorded an eagle two at the first, and followed that with birdies at the second and fourth to reach three under par.

But all that good work was demolished with a run of double-bogeys at the fifth, seventh and eighth, and a closing bogey at the ninth.