Scotland’s George Murray again showed his fondness for autumn shooting a round of a six under par 66 to be trailing just one shot from the lead after day one of the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura.

Murray ended the first round of the Euro 2.5m event a stroke behind fellow Scot Stephen Gallacher and former Ryder Cup star, Ross Fisher of England.

George Murray points the way on day one of the Portugal Masters. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)

Just on a year ago Murray secured a brilliant third place in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to hold onto his Tour card for 2012.

He arrived in Portugal currently lying 163rd on the Race to Dubai and needing a repeat of his Home of Golf showing to again retain his card for 2013.

However arriving on the Algarve with a new putter and Murray boosted of retaining full Tour membership with six birdies and a solitary bogey in a round which equalled his lowest effort of the season.

“I feel good, I’m very happy with the way I played today,” he said.

“I struck the ball nicely and holed out well, which made for ma very nice change because I haven’t been holing the short ones recently. So it was good to see them drop. That’s the key really, no matter where you play, you have to hole putts. You can’t shoot a good score without holing putts, that’s for sure.

“I’ve played pretty poorly recently but I played nicely last week, so I took a bit of confidence from that, and hopefully I can continue hitting good shots and putting well the next three days.

“So I need a good week here, but I did it last year so I know what it takes.”