ANDALUCIA OPEN IN MALAGA

Paul Lawrie shares lead with
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title-holder Kjeldsen on 65

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE

Aberdeen's 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and defending champion Soren Kjeldsen from Denmark shared the lead after the first round of the Andalucian Open in Malaga today.
The pair shot five under par 65s at the Parador club to be a stroke ahead of seven players - England's Phillip Archer, Welshman Bradley Dredge, New Zealander Mark Brown, Dutchman Joost Luiten, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, Argentina's Daniel Vancsik and France's former British amateur champion Julien Guerrier.
His last European Tour victory was in 2002, but Lawrie still believes he can hit the heights again and recently linked up again with former coach Adam Hunter, leaving Bob Torrance, and Lawrie, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, said: "I gave Bob a ring and he was great. I learnt a lot - you do from every coach - but I didn't think I was getting enough out of it for the time it took to see him."
Hunter, a former Tour winner himself, has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia and Lawrie commented: "He's doing all right. It's been a terrible time, but he's out of hospital now, so fingers crossed he's on the road to recovery."
Lawrie turned in a one-under 35 and then, like Kjeldsen later in the day, birdied the first three holes en route to a four under front nine of 30.
Kjeldsen, who won the title in Seville last year, had what he described it as "a dream start" of three 20-footers in a row.
The 34-year-old Dane, 51st in the world, has a second appearance at The Masters to look forward to in two weeks, but he has had another matter on his mind recently. He has been in dispute with a former manager over what he calls "a large sum of money - two to three years of sponsorship" and it could become the subject of a police investigation soon.
South African Louis Oosthuizen and Swede Alexander Noren still have a chance of making it to Augusta by winning this week - they need to move into the world's top 50 - and they began with rounds of 67 and 69 respectively.
England's Nick Dougherty, who recently became engaged to Sky Sports television presenter (and Jonny Wilkinson's former girlfriend) Di Stewart, managed only a two over 72.
Welshman Rhys Davies, winner of his first Tour title in Morocco on Sunday, had a level par 70, the same as Darren Clarke.
Two playing partners were disqualified - one after being accused of wrongly replacing his ball on two greens and the other for not reporting it to officials before signing the scorecard.
Spaniard Borja Etchart, a 21-year-old playing just his third European Tour event and thrilled to be invited by tournament host Miguel Angel Jimenez on Monday, and Norwegian Eirik Tage Johansen were the two involved.
Johansen and former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart, the third member of the group, spoke to each other about the way Etchart put his ball back. But as the one marking the card Johansen had a responsibility to bring the matter to the attention of a referee, and because he signed the card and handed it in he too was told he was out of the £896,000 event.
FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD (before end of play)
Par 70

65 Paul Lawrie, Soren Kjeldsen (Den)
66 Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phillip Archer, Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Mark Brown (Nzl), Bradley Dredge
67 Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Marcel Siem (Ger), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), David Lynn, Sam Hutsby, Stephen Gallacher, Jamie Donaldson, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra)
68 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), John Parry, Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Gary Orr, Peter Lawrie, Anthony Wall, Robert Rock, Dale Whitnell, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Richard Bland, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Richard Finch, Ariel Canete (Arg), Tano Goya (Arg), Paul McGinley
69 Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Robert Coles, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Alexander Noren (Swe), Raul Quiros (Spa), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Simon Thornton, Michael Hoey, Peter Whiteford, David Howell, Javier Colomo (Spa), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Gary Lockerbie, Gary Murphy, Mark F Haastrup (Den), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Thomas Levet (Fra)
70 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Andrew Tampion (Aus), Gareth Maybin, Andrew Coltart, Rhys Davies, Darren Clarke, Jamie Elson, Marco Ruiz (Par), Stephan Gross Jnr (Ger), Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), Pablo Martin (Spa), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Barry Lane
71 Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Gary Boyd, Andrew Oldcorn, Andrew McArthur, Marc Warren, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Alastair Forsyth, Manuel Quiros (Spa), Steve Webster, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), David Horsey, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Julien Quesne (Fra), James Morrison, David Drysdale, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), James Kamte (Rsa)
72 Andrew Butterfield, Peter Baker, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Steven O'Hara, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Johan Edfors (Swe), Shane Lowry, Miles Tunnicliff, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Phillip Price, Nick Dougherty, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Miguel Angel Martin (Spa), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), James Ruth
73 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Damien McGrane, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Stephen Dodd, Thomas Bjorn (Den), Markus Brier (Aut), Santiago Luna (Spa), Gregory Havret (Fra), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Anton Haig (Rsa), Richie Ramsay, Carl Suneson (Spa), Jorge Campillo (Spa), David Dixon, Borja Etchart (Spa), Mark Foster, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
74 Chris Gane, Paul Waring, Scott Drummond, Danny Willett, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Kenneth Ferrie, George Coetzee (Rsa), Sam Little
75 Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Richard McEvoy, Paul Broadhurst, Simon Khan, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)
76 Francisco Cea (Spa), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Graeme Storm
77 Oskar Henningsson (Swe)