Marco Ruiz & Ross McGowan top leaderboard

Paraguayan Marco Ruiz, ranked 403rd in the world, continued a surprising run of form on Thursday by taking a share of the Italian Open first round lead with Britain’s Ross McGowan.

The top pair’s eight-under 64s took them a stroke clear of early leaders Mark Foster and Marc Warren of Britain, who were later joined on 65 by South Africa’s Hennie Otto.

John Daly’s 67, his best return for four months, ended a run of poor performances by the two-times major champion.

Ruiz’s round in Italy follows his unexpected display last week, when he was only a stroke off the Spanish Open lead coming to the turn on the final round, before fading to finish 15th.

Though the 33-year-old from Ascuncion had been up with leaders in the early rounds of the British Open back in 2003, his career subsequently dipped, taking him down to the lower-rated Challenge Tour.

Two years ago, he also had to deal with a serious back problem.

“I was very worried my career might be over,” Ruiz told reporters on Thursday. “I had to quit golf for eight months.”

However, his recovery was underlined last December when he beat reigning U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera down the closing stretch for a morale-boosting victory in the Argentina Open.

“Playing with Cabrera and beating him over the last three holes in front of 11,000 Argentinians to win the Argentina Open was a great boost for me,” Ruiz said.

“It’s like a major for us in South America and he’s (Cabrera) is my idol.”

McGowan, second on the Challenge Tour order of merit last year to earn a full card, had no doubts about his main ambition.

“My first goal is to make sure of keeping my card,” the 26-year-old Englishman told reporters.

Remarkably another Paraguyan, Fabrizio Zanotti, is among the players in sixth place after a 66.

Ruiz said: “That’s not bad for a country that only has 20 pros and five courses.”