Golf: Pilkington shares lead in Qatar Masters
Ron Rafferty started well at the Qatar Masters tournament.
He shot a three under par opening round of 69.
David Higgins is two under after a 70.
Out on the course Des Smyth is one under. Eamonn Darcy is level par and Paul McGinnly is one over.
Mark Pilkington fired a course record 63 to claim a share of the lead.
The Welshman carded an eagle and seven birdies to top the leaderboard alongside Sweden's Robert Karlsson at nine under par.
The early starters made the most of unusually benign conditions at Doha Golf Club.
France's Olivier Edmond is in third place after a 65 and Austrian Markus Brier, South African Roger Wessels and Italy's Marco Bernadini another shot back on six under.
Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, tired after his epic four round head-to-head duel with Tiger Woods in Dubai, had to settle for an opening 69.
Former Open champion Paul Lawrie carded a 68 with fellow Scot Dean Robertson one better off after a 67.
Pilkington was first off at 6.30am local time and arrived with the course still in darkness and floodlights blazing on the practice range.
But the 22-year-old from Bangor began in style with an eagle on his opening hole and, after seven more birdies, was delighted with his start after having to make a third visit to the qualifying school last November to retain his card.
"I made the cut in my last two events without doing anything special but I felt I was playing well, putting quite nicely and I was quietly confident," the former Welsh and Spanish Amateur champion said. "It was just one of those things, a matter of time.
"It was a very early start, up at 4.45 and it was still dark when we got to the course but you have to get used to it and we certainly had the best of the conditions."
