Former Royal Thai Army paratrooper, Thongchai Jaidee, carded a seven under par 64 to storm into a share of the lead with Sweden's Alexander Noren after the first round of the 2008 Barclays Scottish Open.

Jaidee and Noren go into the second round one shot ahead of 2007 US Open champion, Angel Cabrera, and two in front of England's John Bickerton, Sweden's Niclas Fasth and Welshman, Garry Houston.

Four former Barclays Scottish Open champions, Thomas Björn, Johan Edfors, Thomas Levet and Lee Westwood, share seventh place with Martin Erlandsson, Richard Green, Henrik Stenson, Pablo Martin, Maarten Lafeber, Graeme McDowell, Sven Strüver and Patrik Sjöland on four under par 67 while up-and-coming English duo, Ollie and Ross Fisher, plus Argentina's Andres Romero are among the large group on three under par 68, despite the latter taking a costly double bogey on his final hole.

Also included in that group at three under is 1999 Open champion, Paul Lawrie, and 2008 BMW PGA winner, Miguel Angel Jiménez, not to mention colourful young Swede, Pelle Edberg, who had a hole-in-one on the 215-yard 17^th hole, a shot that earned him a new BMW X6 sports activity coupe worth £55,000.

Torrential overnight rain forced the start of the Championship to be delayed by 90 minutes but that did not stop early starter, Jaidee, putting a recent run of indifferent form behind him by carding seven birdies and dropping just one shot to par.

The diminutive 37 year-old Thai golfer arrived in the west of Scotland having missed two out of his last three cuts on The European Tour so he must have feared the worst when he began his round with a bogey on the 455-yard par-4 second hole. However, four consecutive birdies from the 518-yard third repaired the damage and he went on to make further advances at the ninth, 13^th and 17^th to post a 65 that only Noren among the later starters could match.

Noren, a 26 year-old former Swedish amateur international from Stockholm, has also been out of touch of late. He missed three out of his previous four cuts coming into the Barclays Scottish Open but transformed his fortunes with a purple patch just after he turned for home.

Starting at the tenth, the Swede made his first birdie of the day on the 415-yard 12^th. Thereafter, he produced six consecutive pars to go out in 34 before storing home with birdies at the first, second, third, fifth and sixth.

This season Cabrera has also struggled to recapture the sort of form that brought him his Major triumph at Oakmont last June but he got back to near his best at Loch Lomond with a flawless 66 in which he used his enormous power to great effect.

The popular 37 year-old from Cordoba started his round at the tenth and promptly birdied both the 415-yard par-4 12^th and the 415-yard 15^th to get to two under. He hammered home  his third birdie putt of the day on the delightful par-3 17^th and then picked up further birdies on the 3^rd, 6^th and 7^th to give himself a great chance to emulate great friend and compatriot Eduardo Romero and lift the Scottish national title.

A total of 76 golfers broke par during the opening round. They included defending champion Gregory Havret, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Poulter (all 69), Paul McGinley (70) but not World No 2, Phil Mickelson, or Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke who opened with level par rounds of 71, nor World No. 6, Ernie Els, or World No. 3, Adam Scott, who are languishing well down the field on one over par 72 and are in danger of missing the cut.