Mark McNulty makes early mark

Mark McNulty was also enjoying himself in the bright if breezy conditions, the 45-year-old Zimbabwean initially making light work of the 7,361 yard monster.

Playing in the very first group teeing off at 7.15am, McNulty saw his approach to the 407-yard opening hole land short of the green but a kindly bounce took the ball to within 15 feet of the flag.

That putt was safely holed and another one dropped in at the 462-yard second, this time a curling effort from 18 feet to take McNulty to two under par.

He remained two under through the first five holes before Carnoustie exacted its revenge on the tough sixth hole.

The 578-yard par five was playing straight into the wind and McNulty could only find a greenside bunker with his third shot and failed to get up and down to card his first bogey of the day.

That dropped him back to one under and briefly gave the outright lead to Bernhard Langer playing in the group behind.

The German picked up shots at the second and fifth holes, sinking massive putts of 45 and 35 feet to reach two under before also coming a cropper at the sixth.

He zig-zagged his way up the hole from right rough to left rough, eventually finding the green in five and two putting for a double-bogey seven.

That left a five-way tie for the lead at one under with McNulty joined by Japan's Joe Ozaki, Swedes Jesper Parnevik and Jarmo Sandelin and American Scott Dunlap.