Marc Warren (65) one off
the pace in Italian Open
John Daly bounced back from last week's missed cut in Spain and began the Italian Open in Milan today with a five-under-par-67.
The former US and British Open champion, now a lowly 609th in the world, shared the lead for a while, but finished the opening day in a tie for 14th place.
He said: "I moved the ball up in my stance and that was a good day."
Only once has he scored lower all year.
The 42-year-old underwent stomach surgery a month ago and added: "This is the healthiest I've been in more than a year - it was brutal with the pain and it's nice to have my swing back."
Marco Ruiz from Paraguay and England's Ross McGowan topped a day of generally low scoring by hitting the eight-under-par 64 mark.
Marc Warren from East Kilbride was one of three players only one behind on 65.
George Murray and Gary Orr came next on the Scottish hit parade with a pair of 69s.
Richie Ramsay, one of several European Challenge Tours who were able to get into this European Tour field because of the absence of the big guns, shot one-over-par 73.
FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 72
64 Marco Ruiz (Par), Ross McGowan
65 Hennie Otto (Rsa), Marc Warren, Mark Foster
66 Steve Webster, Estanislao Goya (Arg), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Oliver Wilson, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Alexander Noren (Swe), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Gregory Bourdy (Fra)
67 Christian Nilsson (Swe), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), John Daly (USA), Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Edoardo Molinari (Ita).
68 Richard Bland, Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Anders Hansen (Den), Matthew Millar (Aus), Doug McGuigan, Ben Mason, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Nunzio Lombardi (Ita), David Lynn, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Emanuele Canonica (Ita).
69 George Murray, Gary Orr, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Peter Baker, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Paul Broadhurst, Alexandre Rocha (Bra), Federico Colombo (Ita), Michael Jonzon (Swe), James Kamte (Rsa), Miles Tunnicliff, Sam Little, Thomas Levet (Fra), Bradley Dredge.
70 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Sion Bebb, David Park, Anthony Wall, Pedro Linhart (Spa), Scott Barr (Aus), Sven Struver (Ger), Christiano Terragni (Ita), Gregory Havret (Fra), Juan Abbate (Arg), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Paul Waring, Marcel Siem (Ger), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Julio Zapata (Arg), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Lee S James, Phillip Archer, Florian Praegant (Aut), Andrea Perrino (Ita)
71 Robert Coles, David Frost (Rsa), Lee Slattery, Robert Rock, Andrew McArthur, Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Alfredo Garcia (Spa), Santiago Luna (Spa), Alessio Bruschi (Ita), Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Martin Wiegele (Aut), Garry Houston, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Nick Dougherty, Gary Lockerbie, Gary Clark, David Dixon, Lorenzo null Gagli (Ita), Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
72 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Liam Bond, Luis Claverie (Spa), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Steven O'Hara, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Gregory Molteni (Ita), Stephen Dodd, Antti Ahokas (Fin), Peter Fowler (Aus), Craig Lee, Zane Scotland, Renaud Guillard (Fra), Kyron Sullivan, Marco Soffietti (Ita), Stephen Gallacher, Ariel Canete (Arg), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
73 Raphael Eyraud (Fra), Richie Ramsay, Matthew Cort, Giorgio Grillo (Ita), David Drysdale, Sam Walker, Alessandro Napoleoni (Ita), Michele Reale (Ita), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Philip Golding, Ian Garbutt
74 Marco Crespi (Ita), Leif Westerberg (Swe), David Griffiths, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Jim Payne, Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Iain Pyman, Mark Pilkington, Alastair Forsyth.
75 Claudio Vigano (Ita), Miguel Rodriguez (Arg), Steve Alker (Nzl), Anton Haig (Rsa), Paolo Terreni (Ita), Tiago Cruz (Por), Tom Whitehouse, Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Klas Eriksson (Swe)
76 Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Nicola Maestroni (Ita), Markus Brier (Aut), Andrea Zanini (Ita), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
77 Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Scott Drummond.
78 Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Stuart Manley
79 Costantino Rocca (Ita)
81 Terry Pilkadaris (Aus)
Retired: Phillip Price, Alan McLean.