Impressive Casey Shares the Lead

France's Thomas Levet and Britain's Paul Casey are tied in the lead after the first round of the Open at Royal Troonboth, both back in the clubhouse five under par on 66.

Casey birdied two of the last three holes, and his round represented an amazing 19-shot improvement on his opening round at Sandwich 12 months ago. It also follows on from his superb sixth place on his US Masters debut this year.

Levet, who lost to Ernie Els in a sudden-death shootout for the 2002 claret jug, opted for accuracy this time around.

"You have to stay out of the bunkers at Troon so I hit four-irons, five-irons and six-irons off the tee a lot," he said after his composed round in good condition," he said.

"There is a long way to go because this just means we have a few strokes in the pocket if things go wrong tomorrow.

"It is one big step to come tomorrow, two big steps on Saturday, and three enormous steps on Sunday."

Hot favourite Els stumbled after storming into an early lead with a hole in one on the 123-yard Postage Stamp, the eighth and shortest hole on the rota.

Els lead the field but took two to escape from a bunker on the 17th to run up a double bogey and had to settle for a 69.

He said: "Everything went pretty smoothly until I made five at the 17th but I suppose before I started out I would have taken 69, although I felt I left one or two shots out there."

Asked about his the hole-in-one, he added: "I thought I hadn't hit it hard enough but it had a lot of spin. It was a good shot and a wonderful, wonderful result."

Gary Evans continued his love affair with the Open by carding a first round 68. In the first match out at 6.30am, he holed out with a 5-iron from 226 yards for the first albatross since Greg Owen's on the 11th in the third round at Lytham in 2001.

"I hit it perfectly to the middle of the green, turned round to put the club in the bag and next thing I knew there were arms up in the air and everyone was going crazy," said Evans, who also finished impressed at Sandwich.

"I've got a lot of confidence now because of my experience in the Open and if I keep doing what I'm doing and not get ahead of myself then there is no reason why I can't compete at the end of the week."

Colin Montgomerie was two under par with three holes to play on his home course, two shots off the lead.

Montgomerie holed from 18ft on the second, half that distance on the fifth and from just three feet on the sixth for his three birdies, and would have shared the lead but for missing from 10ft on the eighth.

Clubhouse leaderboard at 14.25

Paul Casey -5

Thomas Levet (France) -5

Gary Evans -3

K.J. Choi (South Korea) -3

Carl Pettersson (Sweden) -3

Matthew Goggin (Australia) -3

Barry Lane -2

Rich Beem (U.S.) -2

Paul McGinley (Ireland) -2

Ernie Els (South Africa) -2

Skip Kendall (U.S.) -2

Colin Montgomerie -2

Scott Verplank (U.S.) -2

Trevor Immelman (South Africa) -2

Sandy Lyle -1

Shaun Micheel (U.S.) -1

Justin Leonard (U.S.) -1

Mathias Gronberg (Sweden) -1

Takashi Kamiyama -1