Spanish Open starts in Seville sunshine

Peter Whiteford joint third

after opening 68

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE

The sun shone, but the big names did not in the opening round of the Spanish Open in Seville today.
Leader by one after a seven-under-par 65 was Swede Martin Erlandsson, only 345th in the world, and his two closest challengers were Spaniards Ignacio Garrido and Jordi Garcia, respectively ranked 350th and 1,102nd.

Rookie Peter Whiteford (pictured right) continues to relish the challenge of the European Tour. He ended the first day in joint third place on 68.
Recently married Colin Montgomerie, returning after a five-week lay-off, hit back from two opening bogeys to shoot 70, but last week's winner Darren Clarke had to settle for a 72 and American John Daly, on a two-week trip to Europe, could do no better than 75.
Paul McGinley needed two birdies in the last three holes just to return a 74, the same score as South African Charl Schwartzel, who is trying to become the first player to make a successful defence of the title since Max Faulkner in 1953.
FIRST ROUND SCORES (Par 72)
65 Martin Erlandsson (Swe)
67 Gary Clark
68 Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Peter Whiteford, Soren Hansen (Den), Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
69 Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Peter Baker, Alfredo Garcia (Spa)
70 Lee Slattery, Marco Ruiz (Par), Jordi garcia Pinto (Spa), Colin Montgomerie, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Peter Fowler (Aus)
71 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Francis Valera (Spa), Juan Abbate (Arg), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Anthony Wall, Klas Eriksson (Swe), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Gregory Havret (Fra)
72 Miguel Rodriguez (Arg), Alan McLean, Julio Zapata (Arg), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Gary Lockerbie, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Scott Barr (Aus), Jamie Donaldson, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Richard Finch, Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
73 Richard Bland, Steve Webster, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Danny Willett (am), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Sam Walker, Phillip Archer, Borja Etchart Gonzalez (Spa), Ariel Canete (Arg), Philip Golding
74 Juan Parron (Spa), Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Lee S James, David Dixon, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa), Gary Murphy, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa)
75 Inigo Urquizu (Spa), Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Pablo Menjibar (Spa), Sion Bebb
76 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Steve Alker (Nzl), Carl Suneson (Spa), Robert Dinwiddie
77 Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Marcel Siem (Ger), Kyron Sullivan, Jesus Legarrea (Spa), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus)
78 Stephen Dodd, Gary Emerson
79 Andrew McArthur
81 Rafael Echenique (Arg)
82 Paolo Terreni (Ita)

SCORES TO FOLLOW