Masters champion García poised to turn up the heat at BMW International Open in Munich.

Munich. In ideal conditions for low scoring, Masters champion Sergio García got off to the perfect start on the hot and sunkissed opening day of the BMW International Open at Golfclub München Eichenried today.

The Spaniard, who arrived with three others from the US Open on Monday, defied jet lag to record an impressive bogey-free round of 66 that included six birdies and 12 pars. It left him just two strokes behind Wade Ormsby, of Australia, and poised to strike over the coming days.

“I’m obviously very happy with the round,” García said. “There are still three more to go, so we're going to keep playing hard and hopefully we'll be up there on Sunday.” He was joined on six under par by Thorbjorn Olesen, of Denmark, and Dutchman Joost Luiten. One stroke further ahead was Thomas Detry, of Belgium, the early clubhouse leader.

Also lurking dangerously is Henrik Stenson, the Open champion and last year’s winner of the BMW International Open. The Swede was one of 12 players to have a five-under-par round of 67 and will be looking for more of the same in the second round. “It was stress free for most of the round and if I play the way I did today for the next three days, I think I’ll be there or thereabouts come Sunday,” Stenson said.

While García and Stenson took advantage of the conditions in front of 14,500 fans, a fellow major champion struggled to get to grips with the course. Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who won here in 2008, had a level par round of 72 and will need a good second round just to make the halfway cut. “I was obviously hoping for more from the first round,” Kaymer said. “I had an awful lot of good chances, but I simply wasted too many of them.”

Among the other German challengers Florian Fritsch, Alexander Knappe and Nicolai von Dellingshausen all finished on three under par. For Fritsch the day was made special by playing in the company of Ernie Els, the former world No1. “That was rather special, when you consider that I watched him at Bay Hill as a 13-year-old - and now here I am playing with him.”

Both Paul Peterson, of the United States, and Andres Romero, of Argentina, had the delight of a hole in one at the 2nd hole but disappointment that the feat hadn’t been achieved at the par three 17th, where the prize for an ace is a breathtaking BMW i8 Protonic Frozen Black Edition.