Rookie professional Geoff Ogilvy, inspired by a golf lesson over the Internet with his coach in Australia, fired an eight-under-par 64 on Thursday to share the first round lead in the English Open.

England's John Bickerton, who lost this year's Portuguese Open to compatriot Van Phillips in a play-off, matched Ogilvy's score after collecting eight birdies on a cold and blustery day at Hanbury Manor with sporadic showers.

Two shots behind on 66 was Sweden's Mathias Gronberg who kept his run of form going after a joint-seventh finish in the British PGA championship on Monday.

Zimbabwe's Mark McNulty, playing partner David Carter of England and veteran Scot Sam Torrance, who picked up four shots over his last three holes, were in a group of five tied for fourth on 67.

Defending champion Lee Westwood carded a two-under-par 70, a score later equalled by European number one Colin Montgomerie and South Africa's Retief Goosen, who went to six-under after 11 holes before faltering over the closing stretch.

"I played quite nicely but putted badly. It's nice, though, to be playing as defending champion -- it creates a bit of added extra pressure," Westwood said.

Ogilvy, 21, who has missed the halfway cut in his last three tournaments, reeled off six birdies and an eagle-three after sending video images of his swing to his Melbourne coach Dale Lynch.

Coach and player then spoke to each other via electronic mail to iron out a flaw in Ogilvy's takeaway.

"It's nice to be on the other side of the world and able to have a lesson with your coach at the same time. It's pretty impressive technology," the Australian said.

"I've played pretty bad for six to eight weeks, missed a few cuts and got pretty frustrated. I sent some golf swings back to Australia on computer, talked to my coach on Tuesday and yesterday and he gave me a few things to work on with my takeaway."

"I followed his advice and it started to feel a bit better again. Today, it's really paid dividends."

The Adelaide-born player, Australia's rookie of the year last season, told his caddy before the round that he felt a good score was in the offing.

"I said to him that the Australians tend to play well in this tournament -- Greg Chalmers shot a 61 here last year and Robert Allenby won the title a couple of years ago."

Ogilvy, whose best finish in Europe this year was joint-fifth in the Estoril Open, played the back nine first and stormed out in only 31.

He started his round going with a birdie-two at the 11th and then reeled off four successive birdies from the 15th.

The Australian, who gained his European Tour card at the first attempt last year, eagled the par-five second after holing a bunker shot and he promptly birdied the third to move to eight-under.

Bickerton, enjoying his best year on the European Tour with four top-10 finishes, equalled the 64 he shot in Portugal for his low round of the season.

The Worcestershire player said his round was flawless -- apart from a chip-and-putt to save par at the seventh.