Hampshire's Steven Cowle harnessed the windy conditions to good effect in Spain as he leapt to the head of the leaderboard after the first round of the European Tour qualifying school.

With high winds at the other two venues - Peralada in north-east Spain and St Cyprien on the French border - causing play to be abandoned, the only action of the day in the second stage took place at the PGA Golf de Catalunya.

Play was delayed for 25 minutes due to early morning fog, but Cowle put the disruptions behind him and posted a battling three-under-par 69 to lead by two strokes from Marc Pendaries of France, Alberto Binaghi from Italy and England's former amateur champion Graeme Storm.

Starting at the tenth, Cowle, from Fleet, reached the turn in 33 after a hat-trick of birdies from the 14th.

Another three birdies in succession from the first took the 28-year-old to six under par, but faced with a fierce wind on the remaining holes, he dropped three shots.

His 69 was still the only sub-70 round of a testing day.

l Hampshire's England number one Justin Rose shot a 71 on the opening day of the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in Spain.

Rose lies eight shots off the lead with Angel Cabrera of Argentina having shot a brilliant opening round 63 to be four clear of second-placed Phillip Price.