So far so good for Van de Velde

Jean Van de Velde was today putting his comeback from injury to the ultimate test in the Madeira Island Open.

Van de Velde has been plagued by a knee injury for more than two years and has undergone two bouts of reconstructive surgery.

He made several attempts to return to the tour on a medical exemption last season but missed the cut in eight of his 14 tournaments and was in too much pain to attempt to earn his card at the qualifying school.

As a result the popular Frenchman has to rely on invitations to compete on tour, a situation which would have been avoided if he had taken anything less than a triple-bogey seven on the final hole of the Open championship in 1999.

Victory at Carnoustie, which eventually went to Paul Lawrie in a play-off, would have given Van de Velde a 10-year exemption on the European Tour.

A first-round 68 at Santo da Serra on Friday left Van de Velde four shots off the lead, but of more immediate concern was how his knee would hold up to the steeply undulating course perched 2,300 feet above sea level.

“It feels fine now but we will see how it reacts,” said the former Ryder Cup player after completing 18 holes. “I played four rounds in Portugal last week without any problems so hopefully it will be the same here.”

Welshman Kyron Sullivan and New Zealand’s Stephen Scahill shared the lead after the first round, both players carding six birdies and an eagle to lie eight under par.

English duo Richard McEvoy and Matthew Morris shared third place a shot behind, with five more players a shot further back on six-under, including England’s Gary Emerson and Austria’s Markus Brier who fired a hole-in-one on the fourth.

Sullivan narrowly failed to earn his card from the Challenge Tour last season and then missed out on the qualifying school after breaking his elbow.

“I fell off one of those large exercise balls and broke my elbow and couldn’t touch a club for two months,” said the 28-year-old from Cardiff.

“After a good year on the Challenge Tour I was really disappointed I couldn’t go to the school or play in the three big events in Mexico, Panama and Peru in November and December.”

Sullivan is becoming something of a specialist in these co-sanctioned events between the Challenge and European Tour however, leading after the first round in St Omer and finishing third in the BMW Russian Open last season.

“You have to try to peak for these ones and treat them as majors,” added Sullivan. “If you can do well in these events you can go a long way to getting your card for next season.”

Scahill set the course record of 61 in 1998, and admitted it briefly crossed his mind after racing to the turn in just 30 shots.

Starting from the 10th, Scahill holed his approach to his opening hole from 95 yards, then carded three birdies in a row and also birdied the 18th.

“I had about 10 seconds to think about the course record when I walked from the 18th green to the first tee but I had to try to not think too far ahead,” he said. “Especially as my last round here was an 81 three or four years ago.”