Golf:Ireland's Simon Thornton remains on course for a card on the European Tour next year after a four under par opening round of 67 at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final left him just a single shot off the lead.

Thornton sits in 15th place in the Challenge Tour Rankings and not only did his steady opening round in Italy, leave him in perfect position to consolidate his place in the top 20 and gain a European Tour card, but also means he is in the hunt to steal into the top ten and claim an even better category for the highest tier in European golf next year.

Thornton started solidly with a par on the extremely difficult first hole, before birdies on the third and fifth holes helped him turn in two under par, 32.He began to pick up some momentum on the back nine, with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 15th holes before dropping the only shot of the day with a bogey at the 16th, to leave him in tied second place and just a single shot off the five under par lead.

The 34 year old admitted: “It sets me up nicely. I’m confident that I can play like that every day, so you’ve just got to keep going and playing the same stuff and hopefully it’ll go right over the next three days. I played well, I only missed a couple of greens all day.

"I played really well off the tee, gave myself plenty of chances and I could have had a few more birdies early on. I hit a bad drive on the 16th, went into the bunker with my second and didn’t get up and down. But apart from that I played good golf.”

Julien Guerrier, meanwhile, produced a sparkling display to take a share of the lead and stake a late claim for one of the 20 golden tickets on offer.

A round of 66 helped the flying Frenchman set the clubhouse target on five under par, where he was joined by Spaniard Jorge Campillo, Andrea Pavan and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos, the latter two who have designs on topping the Rankings.