English golfer Simon Dyson, who was handed a suspended two-month ban for cheating in December, has grabbed a share of the first round lead at the European Tour's Volvo China Open on Thursday.
The Englishman fired six birdies and a lone bogey in his round in the 3.2 million-dollar tournament in Shenzhen to score a five-under-par 67, which led him to a tie with big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros at the top of a congested leaderboard.
According to Sport24, Dyson, who has won the event in 2000 as well as the Hong Kong and Macau Opens, was disqualified from the BMW Masters and hit with a fine in Shanghai in October for fixing a spike mark on the line of a putt that led to his suspended ban.
The report mentioned that Quiros, who won the last of his six European Tour titles in 2011 and has since slumped to a low 240 rank, fired four birdies and an eagle at the par-five 13th, while defending champion Brett Rumford of Australia found himself in a group of six players tied for third.
Play was suspended due to darkness with five players yet to complete their opening rounds, the report added.