Golf: Lee quick to claim himself some credit: Bell's Scottish Open: Tim Glover reports from Gleneagles

FOR SOME the European Tour is a gravy train and for others it's a journey to insolvency. Robert Lee has had such a wretched time he is in the red category, suffering a hand to mouth existence and relying on the benevolence of his bank manager. Yesterday Lee had some good news for the man in pinstripes with the calculator.

It was hard going over the King's Course for the vast majority of the field in the first round of the Scottish Open but Lee was on the leaderboard. He shot 67, three under par, and only one player improved on that, the Swede Jesper Parnevik. In 18 tournaments this season Lee has missed the half-way cut in 14.

What adjective, he was asked, would he use to describe his career. Hopeless sprang to mind but Lee was not tempted to use it.

'Underachievement,' Lee replied. 'I've had a hideous time until the last few weeks.' He finished joint 12th in the Jersey Open two weeks ago and won just over pounds 4,000. It was a lifeline. Lee, recently married, lives in London and keeping a roof over his head has been a constant worry. 'I've had to coax my bank manager to stop bouncing my cheques. He charges me pounds 20 every time. Sometimes I think I can't keep going on like this but then I come to my senses. You've got to keep going and believe in yourself.'

Lee, who is 31, has won twice on the European Tour, the last time in Portugal in 1987. Most of the players here stay in the imposing Gleneagles Hotel; Lee is staying with his wife's parents in Airdrie. Robin Mann had no such creature comforts. Mann was first reserve for this championship, and on Tuesday night he slept in his car. Yesterday morning - he only managed a few hours sleep - he was told he was playing and, without the advantage of a practice round, shot a level par 70.

The first prize is pounds 100,000 but there is something else on offer here that Lee, Parnevik and Mann would dearly like to win: a place in the Open Championship at Royal St George's, Sandwich. There are five places up for grabs for those who are not exempt. Otherwise they face the aggravation of having to qualify on Sunday and Monday and nobody is looking forward to that.

Parnevik has gone through the qualifying process on numerous occasions and has never played in the Open. He began yesterday with a bogey five but covered the inward nine in 29 strokes, having six successive birdies from the 13th. Under the circumstances his 64 was a remarkable score on a day when only a handful of players broke par.

This is not the same King's Course that in previous years has produced some of the lowest scores on Tour. The rough is rougher, the fairways narrower and the greens faster. A strong wind made matters worse and the principal criticism from the players was that they could not stop the ball on the greens.

'What is wrong with someone scoring 60?' Seve Ballesteros asked. He shot 74. 'When you're in Scotland you should have the chance to play Scottish-style golf. You can't play a bump and run shot here. It's more like an American course.'

Parnevik agreed that the course had been 'tricked up' but he rode his luck and hit some impressive iron shots - at the 15th he hit his approach to within three feet; at the 16th he was two inches from a hole in one and at the 17th he hit a seven iron to six feet.

Parnevik, who had never broken 30 for nine holes before, is the son of Sweden's leading impersonator. Last year Jesper gave an impression of a duck when he threw himself into the lake at the 18th hole in the Benson and Hedges International at St Mellion. Otherwise he restricts himself to occasionally copying the swings of other players. When he hit his approach to the 18th yesterday he was modelling himself on Greg Norman. 'When I'm trying to hit a high shot I visualise Norman's swing,' Parnevik said. 'If I'm playing a low shot I copy Lee Trevino.'

Colin Montgomerie, who is on level par, is thinking of copying Nick Faldo. He is unhappy with his putting and will consult his friend Faldo about it at Sandwich. 'There is something wrong and it is simply not good enough,' Montgomerie said. 'I cannot win the Open putting like this. I cannot win the Scottish Open either.'

BELL'S SCOTTISH OPEN (Gleneagles): First-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 64 J Parnevik (Swe). 67 R Lee. 68 D Basson (SA). 69 R Chapman, G Evans, M Sunesson (Swe), P Way, D Clarke, P Baker, V Fernandez (Arg), G Nicklaus (US). 70 M Mackenzie, A Sorensen (Den), C Montgomerie, J Farmer, J Sewell, G Orr, B Barnes, H Baiocchi (SA). 71 K Waters, M Mouland, C Rocca (It), P Senior (Aus), S Luna (Sp), P Stewart (US), P Hall, P Fowler (Aus), M Jiminez (Sp), C O'Connor Jnr, J M Carriles (Sp), C Gillies. 72 S Struver (Ger), J Robson, P-U Johansson (Swe), P Lawrie, E Romero (Arg), M Gates, I Palmer (SA), D Mijovic (Can), P O'Malley (Aus), J van de Velde (Fr), R McFarlane, D Cooper, D Waldorf (US), C Mason, N Ozaki (Japan), M Lanner (Swe), G Turner (NZ), J Rystrom (Swe). 73 A Lebouc (Fr), R Davis (Aus), E Els (SA), I Woosnam, M Roe, A Murray, D Hammond (US), A Webster, G Ralph, K Stables, B Marchbank, J Berendt (Arg), S Lyle, E Giraud (Fr), M Martin (Sp), S Torrance, J Haeggman (Swe), R Allenby (Aus), C Cassells, D Feherty, W Westner, S Richardson, G J Brand, R Boxall, P Mayo, W Player (SA), S Bowman (US), J Coceres (Arg). 74 S Ballesteros (Sp), M Clayton (Aus), D A Russell, M Pinero (Sp), S McAllister, J Spence, O Sellberg (Swe), G Day (US), R Alvarez (Arg), J Townsend (US), I Garbutt, R Claydon, B Malley (US), P Fulke (Swe), A Oldcorn, J Maggert (US), D R Jones, J Quiros (Sp). 75 G Brand Jnr, R Goosen (SA), J Hobday (SA), M Poxon, A Binaghi (It), K Walker, D J Russell, R Winchester, R Cochrane (US), B Lane, R Mackenzie (Chile), E Darcy, M Farry (Fr), P Affleck. 76 T Jacklin, S Tinning (Den), *S Gallacher, O Karlsson (Swe), S Field, J Payne, H Clark, R Willison, P Broadhurst, R Karlsson (Swe), A Hunter, F Mann. 77 S Grappasonni (It), M Krantz (Swe), F Lindgren (Swe), A Hare, E O'Connell, J Rivero (Sp), P McGinley, J Robinson. 78 M Hallberg (Swe), P Eales, M Gray, P Walton V Singh (Fiji), M Davis, P Price. 79 A Bossert (Swit), D Silva (Por), D Gilford, C Ronald. 80 T Levet (Fr), A Sherborne, M McLean, P Curry, J M Canizares (Sp). 81 M Miller. 82 M Besanceney (Fr). 84 *S Dundas Y Mizumaki (Jap), P Oosterhuis, A Sherborne, M McLean, G Levenson (SA). Retired: D Smyth, D Curry, J Hawkes (SA).(* denotes amateur)