Michael Sims’ Nationwide Tour career got off to a decidedly shaky start in Central America yesterday after the 27-year-old finished tied for 90th after the first round at the $550,000 Movistar Panama Championships.

Making his debut on America’s prestigious second-tier professional tour, the Island’s top golfer played the front nine of the 7,042-yard Panama Golf Club in an encouraging even par to make the turn in a tie for 25th.

But the 2005 Bermuda Open champion’s round then fell apart, as he reeled off four consecutive bogeys to plunge dramatically down the leaderboard.

He finished the day with a four-over par 74 — including six bogeys and two birdies — to sit some seven shots off the lead held by Americans Tom Scherrer and Hunter Haas together with South African Garth Mulroy, all of who have PGA Tour experience.

The Panama Golf Club is rated as one of the ten toughest courses on the Nationwide Tour and the scores of the 221-man field certainly reflected that — with only the top eight and ties shooting under par for the opening round. All is not lost for Sims, who though near the bottom of the field is only two shots off the top 60 and ties required to make it through to the weekend’s rounds and the guaranteed prize money.

After six years of near-misses and disappointing failure, Sims finally earned a Nationwide Tour card at Q School’s final stage in La Quinta, California late last year, when he produced a sensational performance over the course of a marathon five rounds to finish 75th out of hundreds of hopefuls.