Larrazabal leads the way at Qatar Masters

Spain's Pablo Larrazabal quickly rediscovered his best form to set the pace after the opening round of the Qatar Masters.

Larrazabal followed his sixth DP World Tour title in the MyGolfLife Open by missing the cut the following week, but was back at the right end of the leaderboard following an eight-under-par 64 at Doha Golf Club.

The 38-year-old was among the early starters from the 10th tee and birdied eight of his first 12 holes before dropping his only shot of the day on the fifth.

"I’m very pleased, I played very solid," Larrazabal said. "I missed the cut last week but I played very solid golf and today we kept doing the job.

"It’s not nice when you have your alarm at 4am, but it’s all about going to bed early. I went to bed at 9pm so I got my seven hours."

Niall Kearney is best of the Irish, six shots off the pace on -2. Kearney started with a bogey but quickly recovered and four birdies with just one more bogey saw him sign for a round of 70.

Jonathan Caldwell is a shot further back from Kearney on -1, while Cormac Sharvin will have plenty of work to do to make the cut as he sits on +2 after a round of 74.

Larrazabal enjoyed a two-shot lead over India’s Shubhankar Sharma, France’s Romain Langasque, Poland’s Adrian Meronk and Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde, with Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson and England’s Robert Rock a stroke further back on five under.

Ferguson, who was in the first group out at 6.15am local time, said: "I felt knackered when I woke up but it was actually quite refreshing when you’re on the first tee, there’s not much wind and you know it’s going to get windy so I think it was key to get off to a good start and I managed to do that.

"It’s a tough golf course. It’s quite tight and it’s firm so I was just trying