McGinley tied for second at Loch Lomond

Ireland’s Paul McGinley is tied for second place at the Scottish Open.

After an early slip-up for each of them, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els were also chasing leader Mikko Ilonen on the opening morning of the event at Loch Lomond today.

Mickelson, hoping to prove his recover from a left wrist injury that led to him missing his last two halfway cuts, hit back from a 12th hole bogey with an eagle on the 560-yard next and then a birdie at the 14th.

Twice winner Els, meanwhile, bunkered his second shot to the 10th and failed to get up and down, but then birdied the 13th, 14th and 18th.

On two under par the top two ranked players in the event – Mickelson is third, Els fifth – were two behind the early pacesetter, Finland’s former British amateur champion Mikko Ilonen.

Three birdies in four holes around the turn took Ilonen, winner of his first European Tour title in Indonesia in February, to four under and head of a real United Nations leaderboard.

Joint second were Ireland’s Paul McGinley, England’s David Lynn, Scot Steven O’Hara, German Marcel Siem, France’s Gregory Bourdy and Dane Soren Kjeldsen, while Welshman Phillip Price and Argentina’s Ariel Canete were alongside Mickelson and Els.

After completing yesterday’s pro-am Mickelson said he was not expecting his recent wrist injury to reduce his chances of winning next week’s Open, or indeed this week’s €4.4m event.

“It’s OK. Not 100%, but I don’t think it will affect my shots,” said the American, who hurt himself practising for the US Open.