But the Ryder Cup star played his last six holes in five under par with an eagle and three birdies to card a 67 – two shots behind clubhouse leaders Angel Cabrera and Robert-Jan Derksen.

Cabrera, seeking a double of BMW-sponsored events following his PGA championship victory at Wentworth earlier this year, carded seven birdies and an eagle to match Derksen’s 65.

English duo Phillip Archer and David Griffiths were a shot off the pace on six under – but defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez had to birdie the last three holes just to card a two-over 74.

“It’s obviously not the start I wanted, but I knew there were a lot of birdie holes out there,” Donald said of his double-bogey on the 10th, his opening hole.

“At 472 yards it’s probably the hardest hole on the course and not the easiest to start on, but you shouldn’t be making double bogey from the middle of the fairway.”

A three-iron approach right of the green, a poor chip and three putts followed an ideal drive – but Donald maintained his composure to birdie the next and picked up two more to be out in 35, one under.

Another short par putt went astray on the third, his 12th, before a run of two birdies and an eagle in the next three holes – the par-five sixth easily reached with a drive and six-iron.

“I made six pretty easy birdies in the pro-am, so I had to stick in there after the start and hope there were some more birdies around the corner,” added Donald, who will defend his European Masters title in Switzerland next week.

“Apart from missing a couple of short putts it was a pretty good round.”

Donald had not been the only player caught out by the 10th hole, Ryder Cup team-mate Jimenez also starting with a double bogey as he struggled to the turn in 40.

Another bogey on the first left him five over par and heading for a weekend off, but a closing hat-trick of birdies gave the Spaniard a fighting chance of making the cut.

Archer had a chance to make it a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard but three-putted the par-five 18th for a par and had to settle for a 66.

The 33-year-old is currently 122nd on the Order of Merit and needs to finish inside the top 115 at the end of the season to avoid an 11th visit to the qualifying school in 12 years.

“It’s in the back of your mind, but I’m trying not to think about it,” said Archer.

“I always used to look at what the cut was going to be. But you need to aim higher than that, and the money list will take care of itself.”