Veteran Sam Torrance could rightly dispel two adages yesterday at the National club in Paris in the French Open first round.

First, there is never a bridge too far. Second, as an old dog, you can teach yourself a new trick. Torrance produced the sort of vintage form which has earned him eight Ryder Cup appearances. The sort of form he puts down to going off the bubbly. To try to regain his Cup place, he has gone teetotal this year.

He fired an eight-under-par 64, just one stroke off the course record held by, among others, Paul McGinley. Amazingly, Torrance abandoned his long putter for the first time in about 10 years last week. Playing a pro-am at Sunningdale he wondered why when he four-putted the second green - but then shot a 63 and two days later a 65 at Wentworth.

He brought both kinds with him to Paris, but decided to revert to the broomhandle and reaped the dividends.

A leading candidate for the Ryder Cup captaincy, Torrance still makes no secret of the fact he would rather play again. And should he win what is his 589th tour event - over 100 more than anybody else has managed - he will almost certainly reject the job if offered. Mark James is favourite anyway.

Torrance's pitch-in eagle on the 14th and six birdies took him two strokes in front of former Paris champion Eduardo Romero of Argentina and Spain's Pedro Linhart.

It wasn't the eagle which rated the shot of the day and, surely, ultimately shot of the week, though. That came at the last. Caught between a seven and eight-iron for his second shot to the near island green, he chose the seven, but pulled it and the ball went over the green and avoided the water only by rolling onto a wooden bridge a mere five feet wide.

In the past, he had only walked over it on his way to signing for his card. This time he had to play off it. After scratching his head, he worked things out to a tee, pitching and rolling the ball over the swale after clipping it off the planks, and very nearly finding the cup. He then sank the birdie putt to extend his lead.

Explained the 44-year-old Scot: "My ball was sitting in a half-inch-wide gap on the bridge slats. I could have double-hit, or it might have gone straight left on to the bridge on the other side of the island. Instead I played it nicely with a sand-wedge to eight feet." Yes, very nicely done, and it took him 10 strokes in front of the man who brought him over to this event, Colin Montgomerie. After they had celebrated Monty's 35th birthday, he flew Sam in on his sponsor's private jet. Yesterday it was Sam flying. Monty slipped to a 74 after twice visiting the bullrushes and running up 36 putts.

But there was no jet-lag as an excuse. "I just had an unlucky day," was Montgomerie's reasoning.

McGinley played alongside him and he considered himself lucky by contrast after finishing one-under. Said the Dubliner: "Some days when you shoot a 71 you feel you've been robbed and some days you feel you're lucky to get away with a 71 because you've not played very well. Today was the latter for me."

Des Smyth, continuing the golden oldie theme, was Ireland's best performer. And not surprisingly for the 45-year-old Drogheda professional, six months older than Torrance, has worked his fingers red raw practising.

Yesterday the work reaped dividends with a 69 which was also close to vintage. "I knew I had to do something, so I've worked and I've worked and you have to get something for your effort in the end," said Smyth.

Francis Howley knew his game was getting close, too, even after his last place in Madeira and he rallied splendidly over the last few holes with birdies for a 70.

On a windy morning, 72s by Philip Walton and David Higgins were hewn out of a difficult National course. And 73s by Raymond Burns and Cameron Clark made it a hard-working day all round for the seven Irish professionals in Paris.