Canada's Craig Marseilles conquered the breezy conditions to card an even-par 71 and take a slim lead in the opening round of the Bermuda Open at Port Royal yesterday.

Heading into today' second round he leads by a single shot over senior American pro Jay Dolan who fired a one-over par 72.

Marseilles' compatriot, defending champion Bill Walsh Jr., began with a 73 to put him a three-way tie for third place with top local pro Dwayne Pearman, American Jim Becker and last year's runner-up American Tim Conley.

Dolan's 72 was also good enough to see him top the senior leaderboard with a three-stroke advantage over Canadian Dan Halldorson who carded 75

Another local, Derek Douglas, is in a seven-way tie for sixth after a round of 76.

But it was Marseilles who coped best in the blustery conditions.

After getting off to a solid start by parring the opening six holes, a birdie on the par five seventh and a bogey on the par four ninth hole saw the Canadian make the turn at even par.

Marseilles again made par on the first three holes of the back nine before dropping a stroke when he bogeyed the 13th.

He strung together further pars on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes while birdieing the 17th and finishing the day with another par on the final hole to enter the clubhouse with the day's lowest round.

"I hit the ball very well today but I was still a little disappointed that my score wasn't a bit better,"said Marseilles afterwards.

"I knew that the conditions were fairly difficult so I had to keep the ball in the middle of the fairways. They have grown the rough up which makes it harder to control your distances if you miss the fairway.

"But come tomorrow I will be playing the golf course as I do every other day. You put the ball in the fairway and put it on the greens and that's what I have to do."

In contrasting style to Marseilles, Bermuda's Pearman endured an indifferent day on the course. He recorded five bogeys and one double bogey but also nailed five birdies.

"I hit some good shots and also made some bad ones," admitted the Ocean View pro, who has seen very little tournament play this year.

"I just made a few mistakes today that I usually don't make. My tee shots weren't too bad and the couple of errors that I made were like missing a couple of second shots and also missing on the wrong side of the hole where you had the pin placed on the right corner and hitting on the right side so it was hard to get up and down."

"But I made five birdies so that kind of eased things up for me a little bit.

"It was a little up and down but there's still a long way to go and hopefully I can hit a little better."

Remaining at two under par through the opening ten holes, defending champion Walsh lost a ball on the 11th and had to settle for a bogey. An aggressive approach to the 15th also proved costly as he hit his shot far to the right and made double bogey before suffering another bogey on the par five 17th.

"I really had it going before I had a weak finish," said Walsh.

"I could've posted something under par but unfortunately the last couple of holes just caught up to me.

"Teeing off, I thought par would be a good score and then to have it under par standing on 15th tee I was thinking that the worst that I would do would be to come in at even par. But to kind of finish a couple over par and just play the final three holes three over kind of puts a sour taste in my mouth for the day but I am still in the hunt and certainly not disappointed."

Last year's runner-up Conley also endured mixed fortunes as he had to take four provisional balls. However, like Pearman, he bounced back.

"I hit four provisional balls and had two unplayable lies so to shoot 73 and make that many bad shots makes me kind of happy," he said.

"I am just glad that there's no hurricane coming . . . I think that they got the forecast incorrect. But the winds up here are always tough and the course itself is probably in the best shape that I have ever seen and a real pleasure to play on.

"So it looks like we are going to have some fun for the next few days."