Lawrie leads the way in Gleneagles

Ireland’s Peter Lawrie was setting the pace for the second week running when the Johnnie Walker Championship began after a 160-minute fog delay at Gleneagles today.

The 37-year-old, who started the Czech Open with a 66 before falling back to 37th last time out, reached the turn in a four-under par 32.

Lawrie had company at the top, though, with England’s Mark Foster grabbing four birdies in a row from the 11th as he kicked off another bid to register his first European Tour victory in over eight years.

The pair led by two from Irish Open winner Simon Dyson, former Wales Open champion Jeppe Huldahl, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido and Australian Wade Ormsby.

Liverpudlian Nick Dougherty was alongside them on two under par as he strived to end a horror run of 20 successive missed cuts going back to last November, but then came a quadruple bogey seven on the short sixth.

At two over, however, he was still going better than compatriot Ross Fisher, one of only three members of last year’s Ryder Cup team in the field.

Fisher had already dropped shots on the 10th and 13th when he lost his drive at the long 16th and ran up a triple bogey eight.

Namesake Ollie Fisher, the eventual winner in the Czech Republic on Sunday, was one over after eight, while Fisher’s Celtic Manor teammate Francesco Molinari was one over.

Molinari led the event after three rounds last year, but it was his brother Edoardo who grabbed the title with three closing birdies – and with it a Ryder Cup wild card.

He was among the later starters, as were Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal, Ryder Cup captains past and present, on the course where the 2014 match will be played.

Paul McGinley, favourite to lead Europe then, stood one over after six.

Lawrie reached five under before bogeying the third, but Foster's spectacular start continued with further birdies on the 17th and long 18th.

The Worksop golfer turned in a six-under 30 and led by one from Garrido and by two from Lawrie and Essex’s Robert Coles.