Farry makes his Marc

Marc Farry was back making golfing headlines on Thursday and, unlike last time, he was perfectly happy about it.

Four years after becoming the first European Tour player to fail a drug test - he was later exonerated because the substance was prescribed by a doctor to combat a wrist injury - the 47-year-old Frenchman is now trying to fight his way back onto the circuit.

An opening six-under-par 66 at the BMW International Open in Munich left Farry only one behind joint leaders Raphael Jacquelin and Jose-Filipe Lima, while world number five Ernie Els is just one further back.

Farry's one Tour victory in a professional career that goes all the way back to 1979 came when the event was reduced by rain to 36 holes 11 years ago.

But he lost his card at the end of a 2003 season mostly remembered for what happened at his national Open.

The French government arrived and chose six players for drug testing. Farry was one of them and his sample proved positive for the banned steroid prednisolone, an anti-inflammatory not considered performance-enhancing.

"I'm not like that and it really hurt me inside because it was weeks between the test result and being cleared," he said.

"It was on the internet and I got phone calls from all over the world. I had to keep explaining the situation and it bothered me."