Reunion with old coach pays off as Lawrie grabs share of lead in Malaga

The pair shot five under par 65s at the Parador club to be a stroke ahead of seven players – England's Phillip Archer, Welshman Bradley Dredge, New Zealander Mark Brown, Dutchman Joost Luiten, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, Argentina's Daniel Vancsik and France's former British amateur champion Julien Guerrier.

It might be for only a couple more weeks, but for the time being Lawrie remains Britain's last winner of a major title.

Eleven years on from his amazing victory at Carnoustie – that was the day Jean Van de Velde closed with a triple bogey seven when three clear – the 41-year-old finds himself 235th in the world.

His last victory was in 2002, but Lawrie still believes he can hit the heights again and recently decided to link up again with former coach Adam Hunter.

That meant leaving Bob Torrance, coach to three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, but Lawrie said: "I gave Bob a ring and he was great. I learnt a lot – you do from every coach – but I didn't think I was getting enough out of it for the time it took to see him."

He lives in Aberdeen and Torrance in Ayrshire and it meant a seven-hour round trip. Hunter, a former Tour winner himself, has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia and Lawrie said: "He's doing all right. It's been a terrible time, but he's out of hospital now, so fingers crossed he's on the road to recovery."

Not having played a Tour event for six weeks, Lawrie has kept himself busy at home and on a recent trip to Spain and so did not feel he had any rust to remove on his return. He collected seven birdies and was particularly pleased that two of them, at the 17th and first, both came straight after bogeys. "My attitude was brilliant," he commented. "I've been playing a lot of golf at home and then for two weeks in Spain, so I didn't feel rusty at all."

He turned in a one under 35 and then, like Kjeldsen later in the day, birdied the first three holes en route to a four under front nine of 30. Kjeldsen, who won the title in Seville last year, had what he described as "a dream start" of three 20-footers in a row.

The 34-year-old Dane, 51st in the world, has a second appearance at The Masters to look forward to in two weeks, but he has had another matter on his mind recently.

He has been in dispute with a former manager over what he calls "a large sum of money – two to three years of sponsorship" and it could become the subject of a police investigation soon.

South African Louis Oosthuizen and Swede Alexander Noren still have a chance of making it to Augusta by winning this week – they need to move into the world's top 50 – and they began with rounds of 67 and 69 respectively.

England's Nick Dougherty, who recently became engaged to Sky Sports television presenter (and Jonny Wilkinson's former girlfriend) Di Stewart, managed only a two over 72. Welshman Rhys Davies, winner of his first Tour title in Morocco on Sunday, had a level-par 70, the same as Darren Clarke.

Stephen Gallacher made a very promising start, four birdies offset by one bogey adding up to a three-under-par 67 for the man from Bathgate. Helensburgh's Gary Orr carded a two-under 68, and Peter Whiteford also began under par after a steady round of 17 pars and a birdie at the par-3 ninth for a 69.

David Drysdale and Andrew Coltart started with level-par rounds, while Andrew McArthur, Alastair Forsyth, Marc Warren and the Edinburgh veteran Andrew Oldcorn, now ranked 1,207 in the world, all carded 71s.

Steven O'Hara posted 72, the highest ranked Scot in the field, Ritchie Ramsay, shot 73 and Scott Drummond signed for 74.