Sweden's Henrik Engdahl set the early pace at the 2008 Bermuda Open, firing a two-under par 68 at Tucker's Point Club yesterday.

The Swede made the most of some calmer conditions in the afternoon to open a two-shot lead over Canadians Bill Walsh and Craig Marseilles.

Meanwhile, former Bermuda Open champion Dwayne Pearman and Jamaican Delroy Cambridge both made solid starts to this year's tournament, shooting 73 and 72 respectively

But local honours went to Camiko Smith, a product of the Bermuda Junior Golf Association, who recorded an impressive 72.

Any score around par in the first round was considered a good one, with high winds and heavy rain forecast for the remainder of the week.

The build-up to this year's tournament has been blighted by a change in weeks which has seen a vastly reduced field, and a prize fund slashed from $50,000 to almost half that.

And Cambridge said that while the change of week hadn't made much difference to him, the reduced prize money would force him to consider if he could play the event in the future.

"The change in the week didn't matter to me, but the purse did," he said. "When you pay x-amount of money to come over here, and then the purse is small it kind of takes away the interest from the tournament. But it's once a year, so I thought I might as well play and try to win, you know.

"Next year all depends on what time of year it is. Usually I am in Europe and I'd rather play for £500,000 than $25,000."

Cambridge did his chances of winning no harm at all with a solid first round, but the Jamaican was less than satisfied with his efforts

"It was stinker," he said. "I didn't putt very well, I didn't chip very well, and I made two birdies and four bogeys from nowhere. Around the greens I felt like I gave away five or six shots easy.

"It (the conditions) wasn't that difficult, the most difficult holes I think were 12 and 14, but it wasn't too difficult, I just didn't chip very well, I probably gave away several shots just doing that."

Pearman also struggled, and a three-putt on the last summed up the Bermudian's day.

"I didn't play bad, but I just didn't really score," he said. "I was going three-under after nine, and then I'm shooting three-over, and that's not how you want to finish. But that's golf, it's only the end of the first day, and what can I say, you just got to knuckle down and get on with it.

"It was nice to get a good round in today, and I wasn't in any trouble today, none at all, but from the middle of the fairways I was hitting sand-wedges and making bogeys. But that's ok, I haven't played a whole lot of golf this year, and the last two weeks. Life goes on, you do the best you can and that's it, not every day is going to be a good day.

"I'm just disappointed I didn't finish well, because I started off strongly. Sometimes you'd rather start bad and finish strong, but that wasn't the case."

Even though he struggled, there was never any question of Pearman not playing an event that he has won twice in the past.

"As long as they were going to have it, I was going to play," he said. "I've got nothing else to do, so why not. After winning it twice it would be nice to come back again and add a third, and you can't win if you don't play."

Today, Pearman is playing in the last group out this morning alongside fellow Bermudians Andrew Bissell (87) and Andrew Trott (74), while Cambridge is playing alongside Eddie Heinen (76) and Richard Neame (75).

Leader Engdahl, meanwhile, heads out in the second group of the day alongside Dennis Hendershot and Jon Denny.