Australia’s Scott Strange sits one shot off the pace after firing a six-under 66 in the first round of the China Open on Thursday.

The 35-year-old Western Australian is one of six players behind leader Matthew Baldwin, who took advantage of calm early conditions to shoot 65.

Joost Luiten of the Netherlands, Gary Boyd of England, Jean Baptiste Gonnet of France, Fredrik Andersson Hed of Sweden and Jbe Kruger of South Africa are all equal-second with Strange.

Of those, only Kruger played after lunchtime when a strong wind started to blow across the flat and exposed Binhai Lake course near Beijing.

Englishman Baldwin, who graduated from Europe’s second-tier Challenge Tour last year, said he was also helped by the tee and flag placements.

“The conditions were a lot calmer when I played than when we played a practice round early in the week,” he said.

“Then, I thought shooting four 72s around this course would be very good. But they did move some of the tees forward and some of the pins were very generous which helped the score.”

Former European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie shot a 68 for his best round this year – and it would have been lower had he not three-putted on his last hole of the day.

The eight-time European money list winner, however, was not downhearted.

“I have been working very hard on my game because you have to say that I had lost my game completely,” Montgomerie said. “It feels better and it seems to be coming back.”

Defending champion Nicolas Colsearts of Belgium and Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark are at four-under.

There was no fairytale start for Guan Tian-lang of China, who at 13 years, 173 days made history by becoming the youngest player at a European Tour event.

Playing when the wind was at its highest, Guan started with a bogey and was five-over after six holes.

However, he finished the last 12 holes in level par to shoot a 77.