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Larrazabal owns early lead in France

Thu 26th, June 2008

Paris, France (Sports Network) - Pablo Larrazabal carded a six-under 65 Thursday to grab a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the Open de France.

Oliver Fisher and Peter Lawrie share second place at minus-five. Angel Cabrera, the 2007 U.S. Open champion, is alone in fourth at four-under 67 after one round on the Albatross Course at Le Golf National.

Larrazabal got off to a flying start with a birdie on the 10th, his first hole. He dropped in back-to-back birdies from the 12th to move to minus-three.

The Spaniard continued his move up the leaderboard with birdies on 16 and 18 to make the turn tied for the lead at five-under.

Larrazabal grabbed the outright lead with a birdie on the par-five third. He moved two strokes clear of the field as he birdied the sixth. However, Larrazabal stumbled to a bogey at the ninth, his last, to finish at minus-six.

"I have been hitting my three-wood so well this week. I am not playing with a driver in the bag this week and the only fairway I missed out there was on the ninth," Larrazabal explained. "I thought I had a perfect three-wood, but it was a foot into the big stuff and I had to chip it out.

"Then I hit six-iron for my third shot and my fourth shot was the worst of the day and I had to chip and putt for bogey."

Fisher was in the first group off the first tee. He parred the first three holes, before carding birdies at four and five. He ran off six consecutive pars from there.

The Englishman birdied the 12th and 15th to move to minus-four. He capped a bogey-free round with a birdie on the par-four 17th.

"I just played nicely all day," said Fisher. "I have been putting in a lot of hard work over the last few weeks. Today I just went out there and did what I normally do and made a few putts on the par-fours. It was a solid round."

Lawrie had a crazy round that included just four pars. He stumbled out of the gate with a double-bogey at the first. He got one stroke back with a birdie on the second.

"I was just thinking you stupid idiot for doubling the first," Lawrie said. "I then hit a good four-iron to six feet at the next and holed it, so at least that was something."

The Irishman ran off four straight birdies from the fourth to jump to minus- three. He dropped another shot at the par-five ninth.

Lawrie had another hot streak to start the back nine. He birdied five of the first six holes to briefly take the lead at seven-under. However, he bogeyed two of the last three holes to drop into a share of second.

Jeev Milkha Singh, who won the Bank Austria GolfOpen three weeks ago, and defending champion Graeme Storm both opened with rounds of three-under 68. They were joined in fifth place by Andrew Coltart, Jamie Donaldson, Ignacio Garrido, Barry Lane, Jose Manuel Lara, Miles Tunnicliff, Michael Jonzon, Francesco Molinari, Martin Erlandsson and Martin Wiegele.

Gregory Bourdy is the low Frenchman after the opening round. He is tied for 28th after an opening-round 70.

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