A bogey on the last saw him slip out of a share of the lead, but Thriston Lawrence looked to be in cruise control with his opening four-under-par 68 in the first round of the DP World Tour’s Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo at the Belfry.

Lawrence, who returned to action last week after three weeks off to ease a back problem after the Open Championship with a win on the Sunshine Tour, continued to be aggressive off the tee as usual, and had racked up six birdies by the time he reached the 17^th. He had dropped just one shot – on the 13^th – as he prepared to play the challenging 18^th.

Amongst the dozens of bogeys or worse from the 156-man field on that closing par-four, there was also a quadruple-bogey 18, so it was clearly no pushover. He hit a rare wayward tee shot there, so a bogey was not the worst possible outcome for Lawrence, and he was just one shot off the lead at the end of the round.

Frenchman Jeong weon Ko and England’s Paul Waring enjoyed brilliant back nines to sit at the top of the leaderboard after the opening round.

Ko, who is still awaiting his maiden DP World Tour title, had struggled in recent weeks – he has made only one cut on his last six starts – but he gave himself a much-needed confidence boost by coming home in 31 for a rewarding 67.

Waring drained four straight birdies from the 10th before carding his second bogey, only to pick up two shots to sit at the summit on five-under.

Casey Jarvis also got to four-under-par through 17 holes after starting his round on the 10^th, but a double-bogey six on the ninth saw him drop to two-under and a share of 17^th.

Brandon Stone was on one-under in a share of 30^th, while Dylan Frittelli and Thomas Aiken were in a share of 46^th on level-par.

Dylan Mostert, Pieter Moolman, Justin Walters and George Coetzee all opened with one-over-par 73s, MJ Daffue, Louis de Jager and Jaco Prinsloo had opening 74s, and Ockie Strydom and Darren Fichardt signed for four-over-par 76s.

Justin Harding was on five-over, and Jayden Schper and Oliver Bekker struggled to seven-over 79s.