Golf: Simon Dyson's bid to save his bacon in Denmark

The York ace’s return to European Tour duty after an absence of more than four weeks showed clear signs of rust. He never recovered from a dismal opening to the first round at the Himmerland course near Aalborg.

Starting on the tenth, the 36-year-old dropped four shots in the opening three holes, including a double bogey seven on the par-five 11th.

His lone birdie was on the 16th before he then dropped three more shots in the first four holes on the turn for home.

That left the world number 133 nursing a six-over-par 77, 11 shots shy of three men at the top of the leader-board - Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, Bradley Dredge of Wales and Chile’s Felipe Aguilar.

However, besides that trio, scoring was poor on the first day with a clutch of golfers who shot level-par rounds tied for as high as 15th place.