ASH, England -- Anders Hansen eagled his 17th hole in a 7-under 65 on Thursday that gave him one-stroke lead after the first round of the European Open.

The Dane holed a difficult chip at the 563-yard par-5 No. 8 at The London Club to move ahead of early leaders Peter Hanson of Sweden and Thomas Aiken of South Africa. Sam Little of England and Jyoti Randhawa of India also shot 66.

"The chip was awkward, but we worked out a plan how to play it, found a spot where I could land it and it worked out beautifully," said Hansen, who started his round at No. 10.

Hanson, meanwhile, said his play was boosted by the hole-in-one he made in a playoff Monday to help him grab the last European spot in next month's U.S. Open.

"And with everybody still congratulating me today, you get so much energy out of it," the Swede said. "That had a lot to do with today. So it felt really easy. I was striking it really easy, iron shots were very nice and I made a bunch of putts."

Ben Curtis had a 68 and John Daly had a 71, but other big names struggled.

Former U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell had an 80, Henrik Stenson had a 76 and defending champion Ross Fisher struggled to a 73 -- 10 strokes off the 63 he had in his first round last year, when he won by seven strokes. Both Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie had 70s, while Masters champion Angel Cabrera shot 72.

Irish Open champion Shane Lowry, who is playing his first event as a pro after winning 11 days ago as an amateur, shot a 78.

"I didn't have too many expectations. I felt a bit flat, I suppose, and didn't play great," Lowry said. "I'm actually glad to have that round over."

Sergio Garcia of Spain, the runner-up last year, double-bogeyed his first hole but then had a run of birdie-birdie-eagle on his second nine to finish with a 69.

Garcia hooked his opening drive at the 10th into heavy rough beside the lake and needed two shots just to chop back out to the fairway.

"I didn't hit that bad of a shot, but unfortunately it found the hazard," he said. "To tell the truth I didn't play that poorly on the front nine. I just got punished really hard for a couple of shots I missed."

Although Lowry said he wasn't nervous, playing partner Paul McGinley sensed he was, and it would have been understandable.

"He has propelled himself into a different stratosphere," said McGinley. "It was very difficult for him -- it would be for anybody -- but he is a class player and I didn't see any weaknesses."

Lowry now faces a huge task just to survive the halfway cut, but he has good company in that.

The tournament also saw the professional debut of Australian Scott Arnold, top of the world amateur rankings last week, and he managed only a 79.

"It's always nice to lead a tournament at any stage, but the main thing is to have a chance on Sunday," said Hansen, twice a winner of Europe's flagship PGA Championship and also twice a winner in South Africa earlier this year.

Hanson's 66 came only three days after he holed-in-one in a play-off to earn a U.S. Open spot, while Monday was also a good day for Aiken as it was only then that he learnt he had a place in this week's event.

Players Championship winner Stenson, who ran up double-bogey 7s on both the 12th and 15th, said: "It's not a crisis and I'm not really worried. There were a lot of good things even though I was not getting the scoring going."

Troubled by neck and back problems, New Zealander Campbell has not made a cut since the Dunhill Links Championship in October and at Wentworth a week ago handed in scores of 79 and 82.

He had to wait only three holes this morning for it all to go horribly wrong again. Two lost balls off the tee at the long 12th led to a quadruple-bogey 9.

Having lost his card by finishing only 131st on last season's money list, Aiken is currently 25th and commented: "I'm fine for next year now, but just to keep playing this year I've obviously got to rely on invites."

He was "only" level par at the turn, but then birdied six of the next eight holes.

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