McGinley on the march

A 30-yard chip-in for eagle helped to make former Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley one of the early pacesetters at the Madrid Masters today.

After birdies at the 12th and 13th holes – he began on the back nine at Real Sociedad – the 43-year-old Dubliner’s shot from short of the 16th green lifted him to four under par.

McGinley was one behind his 2002 Belfry team-mate Niclas Fasth, who birdied five of his first six holes, and shared second spot with England’s Richard Finch and Frenchman Julien Guerrier.

But there was a nightmare start for Michael Campbell on his return to the game. The 2005 US Open champion double-bogeyed the 451-yard first and then had a quintuple bogey nine on the long third.

Campbell is down to 650th in the world, has not made a halfway cut since October and, after failing to break 80 in either round at The Masters last month, decided he needed a lengthy break from golf “to get myself sorted out.”

He has been consulting with an Australian psychologist known for his work with the Wallabies rugby union team and swimmers Ian Thorpe and Kieren Perkins, but admitted he had no expectations this week.

“I’m just going to play with no score in my mind at all,” he said on the eve of the event.

Things did at least get better when he parred the next seven holes, but at six over he was 11 adrift of Fasth.

Stars Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer were among the later starters.

When Fasth picked up further shots on the 16th and 18th he turned in a spectacular seven-under 29.

It put him two clear of Donaldson and three clear of McGinley, Finch, Guerrier and also Italian Francesco Molinari.

Campbell was in last place when he bogeyed the short 14th to be seven over, but only one ahead of him was tournament promoter Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

His unhappy day began with a second shot into the lake on the 534-yard 10th and he had another six on the long 16th.

Defending champion Ross McGowan was in the group behind and, playing a different course to the one on which he had a third-round 60 last October, he mixed three birdies with three bogeys to be level par after 10.