It may have been three months since Jose Maria Olazabal played a competitive round of golf, but he showed no signs of losing his touch as an opening-round one-under-par 70 at the Madrid Masters left him three shots off the lead.
The 42-year-old has been out of the game because of injury and fatigue since narrowly failing to qualify for the Open in June, but this comeback - his third during an injury-hit career - is on track.
Englishman Paul Broadhurst, Swede Magnus Carlsson and Australian Marcus Fraser are the leaders, having all shot 67s, and are hotly pursued by a cluster of five players, including French Open winner Pablo Larrazabal, who are one shot back on three under.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, who would move to third in the European Tour Order of Merit if he wins here, is one of 15 players two shots behind on two under.
Olazabal sent expectations soaring when he birdied his first hole - the 10th - and he was two under at the turn as birdies at 16 and 17 made up for a dropped shot on the 14th.
He picked up another birdie on the way back in, and even two more bogeys failed to take the gloss off an impressive score.
The two-time Masters champion said: "It has been a very positive day and my score is better than I expected.
"I made some mistakes - I three-putted on two greens - but other parts have been very good.
"I started the 10th hole, my first, with a birdie and I thought to myself 'This is good'.
"Who would believe that after so much time out of competition I make a birdie to start?
"Being back on the golf course has been weird. It's been a long while since I was in a competition and I have lost my rhythm.
"But I will do my best. It's not a 100-metre sprint but four long days on a very demanding golf course. It might seem easy but you have to play very well."
Joint leader Broadhurst is no stranger to enforced absences either, having been sidelined by a serious hand injury in 2000, and despite admitting his four-under-par 67 was not pretty at times, he was happy overall.
The 43-year-old said: "I just stuck in there really and had to make a couple of miracle shots to keep it ticking over.
"I had a couple of very poor tee shots on five and six but came back with another couple of birdies at the end and it's nice to finish four under.
"It doesn't get any easier even if you've been on the Tour for years and I'll be out practising this afternoon."
Carlsson, out early this morning, matched Broadhurst's efforts and is delighted to be seeing several weeks' hard work bear fruit.
"The last few weeks I've been working a lot on my game and have started believing in myself," he said.
"I had a good start in January but then missed a lot of cuts.
"I lost a play-off in Johannesburg and I made the mistake of thinking it was going to be easy. So I'm very happy with this score today."
Collated first round scores in the European Tour Madrid Masters, Club de Campo, Madrid, Spain
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
67 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Paul Broadhurst
68 Steve Webster, Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Santiago Luna (Spa), James Kamte (Rsa), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)
69 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Francis Valera (Spa), Damien McGrane, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Sion Bebb, Peter Baker, Paul Waring, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Ariel Canete (Arg), Carlos Del moral (Spa)
70 Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Julio Zapata (Arg), Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Robert Rock, Gary Murphy, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Peter O'Malley (Aus)
71 Alvaro Velasco (Spa), David Griffiths, Carlos Balmaseda (Spa), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Pedro Linhart (Spa), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Marc Warren, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa), Hernan Rey (Arg), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Sam Little, Garry Houston, Paolo Terreni (Ita), Kyron Sullivan, Stuart Manley, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Gabriel Canizares (Spa), Sam Walker, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa), Stephen Gallacher, Tom Whitehouse, Phillip Archer, Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Emanuele Canonica (Ita)
72 Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Pelle Edberg (Swe), David Lynn, Simon Wakefield, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Alvaro Salto (Spa), Paul Lawrie, Matthew Millar (Aus), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Peter Fowler (Aus), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Richard Sterne (Rsa)
73 Juan Abbate (Arg), Steve Alker (Nzl), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Peter Whiteford, Benn Barham, Robert Dinwiddie, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Anthony Wall, Lee Slattery, Lee S James, Pablo Martin (Spa), Bradley Dredge
74 Juan Parron (Spa), Moises Cobos (Spa), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Tiago Cruz (Por), Carl Suneson (Spa), Andre Bossert (Swi), Marco Ruiz (Par), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Miles Tunnicliff, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa)
75 Miguel Rodriguez (Arg), Craig Lee, Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Andrew Tampion (Aus), Angel Matallana (Spa), Leif Westerberg (Swe), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Iain Pyman, Alessio Bruschi (Ita), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Manuel Quiros (Spa)
76 Martin Wiegele (Aut), David Drysdale, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Luis Claverie (Spa), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus)
77 Simon Robinson, Ivo Giner (Spa), Julien Clement (Swi), Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
79 Sven Struver (Ger), Jamie Gabarda (Spa)
81 Federico Cabrera (Arg)
83 Vicente Blazquez (Spa)
NFL suspends Ravens’ Martin for season opener
MITCHELL CLAIMS SCOTTISH SENIORS
Saints coach Payton planning to appeal $15K fine
VILLEGAS BREAKS INTO TOP 20
