Germany's Marcel Siem surged into a first-round lead at the Hassan II Trophy in Morocco with an eight-under-par 64 to boost his Masters hopes.

An eagle-birdie finish gave the 32-year-old a three-shot lead at the Agadir resort as he seeks to add to his two PGA European Tour wins, the more recent of which came last July in France. A strong result would also give the world number 72 a chance of breaking into the top 50 ahead of the qualification cut-off for Augusta.

A bogey at the second was an inauspicious start to his round but he responded with an eagle and two birdies and picked up further shots at the 10th and 11th before chipping in at the last two holes.

He said: “Sometimes you need a bit of luck in this game and thankfully today was one of those days where it went my way.”

The morning's clubhouse pace had been set by English trio David Horsey, Graeme Storm and Simon Wakefield; all of whom defied strong winds to sign for four under par 68s.

The Irish challenge on day one was a disappointing one and, in the case of Gareth Maybin (79) and Damien McGrane (80), will be nigh on impossible to resurrect.

A 75 for Peter Lawrie meant he finished on three over, one behind Michael Hoey and two adrift of David Higgins, who was best of the Irish in returning a 73 late in the day.

All of them fared better, however, than Czech golfer Jakub Svoboda who was well on course for a European Tour record score when he retired. Svoboda was 21 over par after just six holes when he pulled out.

The 20-year-old got off to a bad start with a two-over-par seven on the opening hole and then dropped four more shots at the par-three second. A nine at the par-four third was followed by a seven at the par-four fourth, another seven at the par-five fifth and five more dropped shots at the par-four sixth which proved to be his final hole.

The European Tour record high score for a single round is the 111 by Mark James at the Italian Open in 1978.