After only two successes in 10 trips to the European Tour qualifying school, Londoner Gary Clark knows all about the ups and downs of life as a professional golfer.
The 37-year-old former England amateur international had his biggest 'up' last month when he finished third at the Madeira Open, but even greater riches are there for the taking this weekend.
Clark began the Ј1.5million Spanish Open in Seville with a five-under-par 67 on Thursday and was in fourth place when the tournament resumed this morning.
He earned a berth at the event through his ranking on the 'second division' Challenge Tour last season and that is where his main focus still lies.
"There's a tournament in Morocco this week, but how can you turn down a chance like this?" said Clark, who in his college days in America competed against the likes of Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard and David Duval.
He is currently 336th in the world, but amazingly that makes him the highest-ranked player in the overnight top four.
Martin Erlandsson, the Swede who led following his 65, is 345th on the rankings and Spaniards Ignacio Garrido and Jordi Gardi are 350th and 1,102nd, respectively.
Garrido is the best-known name amongst them, of course, but the 1997 Ryder Cup player has had only six top-10 finishes since winning the Tour's PGA Championship at Wentworth five years ago.
Colin Montgomerie opened with a 70, last week's winner Darren Clarke a 72 and America's former Open champion John Daly a 75.
Clarke, who ended two and a half years without a victory in Shanghai on Sunday, blamed mental fatigue and one treacherous green for his score.
"I didn't get much sleep again - last week took more out of me than I realised," said the 39-year-old Ulsterman.
"Mentally, I was not at the races. The game's fine, but my head's tired - I made some poor decisions."
The green in question was the short 17th, where Clarke three-putted for bogey just after seeing Thomas Levet four-putt for a triple-bogey six.
"It's like glass and it's on a hill. They've destroyed the green," said the Frenchman, winner himself of the Andalucian Open only five weeks ago, after dropping two more strokes on the last and signing for a 79.
Clarke added: "It's dead - just pathetic really."
Playing partner Daly has not had a top-10 finish for three years in crashing to 595th on the world rankings, and the former Open champion felt like a broken record when he commented: "I hit it good, but putted bad again.
"It's the same stuff. I've had two years of this. I'm getting nothing out of it and it's frustrating."
Collated first round scores
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
65 Martin Erlandsson (Swe)
66 Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Jordi Garcia (Spa)
67 Gary Clark
68 Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Peter Whiteford, Soren Hansen (Den), Steven O'Hara, Peter Lawrie, Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
69 Robert Rock, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Peter Baker, Alfredo Garcia (Spa), Manuel Quiros (Spa)
70 Matthew Millar (Aus), Jordi garcia Pinto (Spa), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Pedro Linhart (Spa), Lee Slattery, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Peter Fowler (Aus), Colin Montgomerie, David Lynn, Marco Ruiz (Par), Stephen Gallacher, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Florian Praegant (Aut), Mark Foster, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
71 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Francis Valera (Spa), Juan Abbate (Arg), Gary Orr, Anton Haig (Rsa), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Anthony Wall, Iain Pyman, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Klas Eriksson (Swe), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Gregory Havret (Fra)
72 Miguel Rodriguez (Arg), Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Simon Dyson, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Marc Warren, Scott Barr (Aus), Jamie Donaldson, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Miles Tunnicliff, Pablo Martin (Spa), Ian Garbutt, Craig Lee, Hennie Otto (Rsa), Alan McLean, Julio Zapata (Arg), Darren Clarke, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Gary Lockerbie, Richard Finch, Tom Whitehouse, Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
73 Pelle Edberg (Swe), Danny Willett, Simon Wakefield, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Richard Bland, Steve Webster, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Sam Walker, Jamie McLeary, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Mark Pilkington, Phillip Archer, Ariel Canete (Arg), Borja Etchart gonzalez (Spa), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Philip Golding
74 Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Juan Quiros (Spa), Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Leif Westerberg (Swe), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Carlos Balmaseda (Spa), Peter Hanson (Swe), Alexander Noren (Swe), Eduardo De La Riva (Spa), Santiago Luna (Spa), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Juan Parron (Spa), Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Gareth Maybin, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), David Drysdale, Lee S James, David Dixon, Gary Murphy, James Kamte (Rsa), Paul McGinley
75 Pedro Erice ibanez (Spa), Garry Houston, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa), Pablo Menjibar (Spa), Sion Bebb, Moises Cobo arrayas (Spa), John Daly (USA), Gary Boyd, Inigo Urquizu (Spa), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Miguel Angel Martin (Spa), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Fredrik Widmark (Swe)
76 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Steve Alker (Nzl), Liam Bond, Robert Dinwiddie, Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Doug McGuigan, Stuart Manley, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Johan Edfors (Swe), Carl Suneson (Spa), Alvaro Salto (Spa)
77 Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Sven Struver (Ger), Marcel Siem (Ger), Kyron Sullivan, Jesus Legarrea (Spa), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus)
78 David Griffiths, Stephen Dodd, Alastair Forsyth, Gary Emerson
79 Andrew McArthur, Paul Waring, Ignacio Elvira mijares (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)
80 Benn Barham, Luis Claverie (Spa)
81 Rafael Echenique (Arg)
82 Paolo Terreni (Ita)
85 Mattias Eliasson (Swe)
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