Justin Rose and Richard Bland are up and running in the lucrative Deutche Bank Open in Heidelburg - and that was just about the long and short of it yesterday.
As Germany's Alex Cejka set a hot pace at eight-under par, the Hampshire pair lodged themselves into a comfortable midfield position - Rose thanks to his long game, Bland with a trio of birdies at St Keon-Rot's cunningly designed short holes.
After a blistering ten-under par 62 in Thursday's prom-am, Rose teed off in confident mood and made birdies at two of his first three holes.
The top players are describing the much-changed course as a big-hitters paradise and Rose, who has generated extra power off the tee over the last year, picked up one of his shots at the 536-yard par five third.
But a legacy from last week's high-scoring exit at The Belfry saw him drop shots at the fifth and tenth before he picked up his third birdie of the day at the 603-yard 17th to finish with a 71 - one-under par.
Bland finished on the same score but accumulated it in a much different way. He began at the tenth, bogeyed the 11th, birdied the short 13th then dropped another shot at 14th in a mixed start.
But he played the remaining 13 holes in two under, his next two birdies arriving at the 16th and sixth holes, both of them par threes where the Stoneham man's iron play and putting were rock solid.
At one under both men were in the 30's but there was such a log jam at one under that those players on par were today looking over their shoulder at the cut mark such are the towering standards on the European Tour.
Best of the Brits was a re-emerging Colin Montgomerie at six under, three ahead of Tiger Woods, looking for his third win in five years in a tournament which is worth over two million euros.
Darren Clarke was nicely poised at five under but former winner Lee Westwood was still struggling to overturn a run of poor form, finishing the day at two over.
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