Last year’s winner Graeme McDowell endured a difficult return to the Ballantine’s Championship, firing three bogeys in his first nine holes at the Pinx Country Club on Jeju Island. before hitting three more on the way back in.

Mark Brown shot a seven-under-par 65 to hold a one-shot lead over early morning pace setter Kang Kyung-nam as the Ballantine’s Championship got under way at the Pinx Golf Club on Jeju Island today, but there was a poor start for 2008 winner Graeme McDowell.

STEPHEN GALLACHER missed equalling the lowest round of his European Tour career by incurring a bizarre one-shot penalty for hitting the ball when he did not mean to.