A SUPERB opening round 67 has given York-born golfer Simon Dyson an excellent chance of defending his Irish Open crown.

The 34-year-old put together a remarkable round, during some heavy rain, to charge towards the top of the leaderboard in the European Tour’s sell-out event at the Royal Portrush GC in Northern Ireland.

Paired in a marquee group with Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, Dyson, who talked during the week of his love of playing links golf, actually bogied the tenth hole – his first of the day.

But he quickly righted matters on the 15th and also birdied the 17th to reach the turn at one under par.

After an eagle at the par-five second, and a chip-in birdie at the seventh, Dyson also birdied the ninth to finish his second nine in 32 strokes – leaving him at five under par at the Dunluce course and just two shots behind early leader Mark Foster.

Playing partner Harrington matched Dyson’s 67 with McDowell further back in the field at one under par.

Dyson felt his game was good coming into the competition and even won the pro-am event, staged on Wednesday, after carding a combined score of 28 under par with partners Lawrence Pierson, Tony Connolly and Bro McFerran.