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Kingston grabs Mallorca lead

Mallorca - South Africa's James Kingston took a two-shot lead after the first round of the Mallorca Open on Thursday with an impressive five under par 65 at the Pula course here.

Spain's Alvaro Velasco was in second place, with Ireland's Gary Murphy, Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin, Spain's Alejandro Canizares and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen one shot further back.

"I didn't have a nice day out there yesterday and it's not one of my favourites," said two-time European Tour winner Kingston, who enjoyed the better early conditions before the wind picked up later in the day.

"But I was hitting it so well that it was actually an easy round. It's tricky even without a wind, but when you play nicely you can see the scores."

Velasco lost his European Tour card last season and did not make the 72-hole cut at The European Tour Qualifying School in November.

His ranking on the Spanish Order of Merit earned him his place in the tournament and he came home in 32 with birdies at the first, fourth and sixth.

Murphy was another back at the Qualifying School last November and although the 37-year-old from Kilkenny made it through he has since managed to survive only two cuts in 10 starts.

"I've been struggling with the groove change," he said. "I'm on my fifth set of irons, but have finally got some I feel are doing what they should do."

Leading and selected scores (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 70):

65 - James Kingston (RSA)
67 - Alvaro Velasco (ESP)
68 - Gary Murphy, Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN), Alejandro Canizares (ESP), Raphael Jacquelin (FRA)
69 - Chris Wood, Marco Soffietti (ITA), Jose Manuel Lara (ESP)
70 - Carlos Del Moral (ESP), Andrew Tampion (AUS), Liam Bond, Adam Gee, Luis Claverie (ESP), Richard McEvoy, Stuart Manley, Gary Clark, Marco Ruiz (PAR), Jamie McLeary, Andrew Marshall, Santiago Luna (ESP), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (ESP), Manuel Quiros (ESP)
71 - Andrew Butterfield, Mark Tullo (CHI), Moises Cobo (ESP), Robert Dinwiddie, Soren Hansen (DEN), Peter Gustafsson (SWE), Matthew Zions (AUS), Pelle Edberg (SWE), Simon Wakefield, Antonio Ferrer (ESP), Andrew McArthur, Keith Horne (RSA)
72 - Patrik Sjoland (SWE), Seung-yul Noh (KOR), Branden Grace (RSA), Mikko Korhonen (FIN), Steven O'Hara, Xavier Guzman (ESP), Peter Hanson (SWE), Scott Hend (AUS), Lee Slattery, Francois Calmels (FRA), Tim Stewart (AUS), Jesus Maria Arruti (ESP), Francois Delamontagne (FRA), Christophe Brazillier (FRA), Simon Khan, Ricardo Gonzalez (ARG), Robert Coles, Sam Hutsby, Carl Suneson (ESP), Mark F Haastrup (DEN), Andrew Willey, Jean-Francois Lucquin (FRA)
73 - Robert Jan Derksen (NED), John Parry, Steven Jeppesen (SWE), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (ESP), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (DEN), Alessandro Tadini (ITA), Victor Riu (FRA), Gregory Havret (FRA), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (FRA), Christian Cevaer (FRA), George Murray, Henrik Nystrom (SWE), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (FRA), Anton Haig (RSA), Magnus A Carlsson (SWE), Jarmo Sandelin (SWE), Scott Drummond, Javier Colomo (ESP), Daniel Vancsik (ARG), Tony Carolan (AUS), Ghislain Rosier (FRA), Philip Golding

Selected:

74 - Hennie Otto (RSA), Julien Guerrier (FRA), Charles-edouard Russo (FRA)
75 - Andrew Dodt (AUS), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (IND), Paul McGinley
76 - Julien Quesne (FRA), George Coetzee (RSA), Thomas Levet (FRA)
78 - Louis Moolman (RSA)
79 - Scott Strange (AUS)
80 - Anthony Snobeck (FRA)
81 - Chris Gaunt (AUS)
82 - Michiel Bothma (RSA)

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