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ASH, England - Anders Hansen chipped in for an eagle on his penultimate hole to take a one shot lead after the opening round of The European Open.

But the Dane was quick to point out that his good start would be quickly forgotten if he fails to convert it into a fourth European Tour title on Sunday.

The Joburg Open winner carded a seven under par 65 at The London Club to lead Thomas Aiken, Peter Hanson, Sam Little and Jyoti Randhawa by a stroke after the opening day.

“Obviously at any stage it's always nice to lead the tournament, but the main thing is to be there on Sunday and give myself a chance, so that would be great,” he said. “A good start, so we'll see.”

Hansen’s flawless round started on the tenth tee and on the way out he enjoyed four birdies to turn in 32.

The World Number 66 picked up another shot at the sixth to move within a stroke of early pacesetters Aiken and Hanson, before unleashing some pyrotechnics at the monster 608 yard eighth.

A booming drive down the right of the fairway was followed by a solid three wood to the edge of the green, and Hansen found the cup with a difficult chip shot.

“It was actually quite a tricky chip there,” he said. “So discussing how to hit it but we came up with a plan and it just worked out and it was a very, very good shot, very good chip.

“The pin was short left so we were not sure whether we could get enough check on the ball to stop it but we found a spot where I could land it and then hopefully it's going to work out. It's just one of those things where you are not quite 100 per cent sure whether it's going to work out or not but I hit it beautifully - had it not gone in, I think it was going to be pretty close anyway, but it worked out beautiful.”

Earlier Sweden's Hanson followed up his dramatic play-off hole in one on Monday with a sparkling start.

The 31 year old, who grabbed a place in next month's US Open Championship with his ace in the qualifying tournament at Walton Heath, returned a six under par 66 to share the early lead with in form South African Aiken.

Hanson said: "I think today's score had a little bit to do with Monday. I've been struggling a bit with my long game and that gave me a huge confidence boost.

"It was a fantastic way to come into this, with people patting me on the back and saying 'Well done'."

He almost had back to back holes in one on par threes as his shot to the 208 yard 11th, his second, pitched only a foot from the flag.

After turning in 33 he added further birdies on the second and third - another two there - and came back from a bogey on the next by picking up more shots on the two front nine par fives.

Aiken failed to keep his card last season, but has had an amazing eight top ten finishes in his last ten tournaments and raced through the outward half in a six under 30 to join Hanson.

“The back nine was quite special,” admitted Aiken. “I made six birdies and three pars in the back nine, so got a bit of a run going there.”

Randhawa joined them late in the day after completing his 66 with a birdie at the ninth - his final hole - and Little did likewise at the 448 yard par four 20 minutes later.

The Indian had dropped a shot at the 11th, his second, but responded well with seven birdies and no further dropped shots.

And Randhawa admitted a strange preparation for the event in Surrey - jumping out of an aeroplane.

“I've taken two months off,” he said. “I've been all over the place, and I was in America - skydiving. It was a great rush. What that does to you, no sport in the world can do, the kind of adrenaline that flows when you jump out of a plane.”

He was closely followed by compatriots Shiv Kapur and Jeev Milkha Singh on five under par, along with seven others.

“I basically tried to hit lots of fairways and greens and managed to do that,” said Kapur. “The one fairway I missed on 18, I made bogey, so it was a blemish free round until then. So a good start.”

England’s Simon Khan, French trio Christian Cévaër, Michael Lorenzo-Vera and Jean-François Lucquin, Ireland’s Peter Lawrie, Germany’s Marcel Siem and Italian Alessandro Tadini also signed for rounds of 67.