There were two late bogeys in his round on Thursday, but Shaun Norris signed for a two-under-par 68 in the first round of the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.

Norris had reached four-under-par with birdies on the first and three in a row from the fifth, but he dropped shots on 15 and 16 as he shared 27th place in the last tournament before the Open Championship.

He was in an 19-way share of 27th with, amongst others, Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper.

Former champions Rory McIlroy and Bernd Wiesberger were part of a five-way tie for the lead on a packed leaderboard after day one.

On a day of glorious sunshine and calm wind, the pair – who have six Rolex Series titles between them – carded rounds of 65 to get to five-under and join South Korea’s Tom Kim and American Patrick Cantlay at the summit.

They were all briefly passed by Rasmus Højgaard as the twilight began to set in on the East Lothian coast but the Dane could not hold on and he too finished the day at five-under.

Jarvis also had four birdies and two bogeys after starting his round on the 10th. He had one dropped shot on each of the nines, the first on the 15th, and the second on the eighth.

Schaper, like Norris, started on the first, and he opened with a birdie before dropping two shots to turn in one-over 36. He made three birdies without dropping a shot on the back nine.

Ockie Strydom and Jacques Kruyswijk were on one-under in a share of 53rd, while Aldrich Potgieter, Dylan Frittelli, Hennie du Plessis and Dylan Naidoo were all on level-par in a share of 72nd.

Thriston Lawrence, Yurav Premlall and Erik van Rooyen were on one-over and Richard Sterne was on two-over-par.