Four players share the lead of the British Masters after the conclusion of the first round at The Grove, but a whole host of others will think their title chances are very much alive as more than 16,000 fans watched the action as top-class golf returned to Watford after a ten-year absence.

Morning starters Marc Warren and Mikko Illonen put the makers down by shooting five-under-par rounds of 66 and they were joined atop the leaderboard going into tomorrow’s second round by Tommy Fleetwood and Richard Sterne.

The rounds of Englishman Fleetwood and South Africa’s Sterne were arguably the pick as they played bogey-free rounds as the wind intensified in the afternoon, although Scotland’s Warren and Illonen, from Finland, both had frequent bursts of rain to contend with before lunchtime.

One shot further back are a group of seven players, including Lee Westwood, who showed a return to form, Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston following another bogey-free round and Sweden’s Alex Noren, who holed a monster putt to eagle the par five 18th.

Other star names in contention include former US Open champion Graeme McDowell, BMW PGA champion Chris Wood and Shane Lowry. They are in a group on three-under that also boasts last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links champion Tyrrell Hatton.

The tournament suffered a blow when Masters champion Danny Willett pulled out without striking a ball due to a recurrence of back problem, but the withdrawal of another player, Thomas Bjorn, worked to the favour of Callum Shinkwin.

The Moor Park Golf Club professional had all but given up hope of competing in his home-town tournament, but after responding to three missed phone calls from the European Tour the 23-year-old hot-footed it to the course to shoot an opening even-par round 71.

But it has not been a good day on the course for British Masters host Luke Donald. The Hemel Hempstead-born former world number one had been hoping to contend, but he will need to shoot a very low round to make the weekend’s play after carding a six-over 77.

You can relive today's developments as they happened at our British Masters blog here.