Colm Moriarty and Stephen Browne made solid, if unspectacular, starts to the Challenge Tour Grand Final in San Domenico, Italy today as they chase full tour cards for next season.

Moriarty opened with a 68 to lie six strokes off the lead with Browne a shot further back following his round of 69.

With the field confined to the top-45 players on the money list, Moriarty (32nd) and Browne (37th) have made it to the season's finale, but will need to finish in the top two to claim one of the tour cards that will be handed out to the players who finish in the top 20 on the final money list.

First round scores

62Michael LorenzoVera (Fra);

65Mikael Lundberg (Swe);

66Felipe Aguilar (Chi); Jamie Donaldson (Wal); Martin Wiegele (Aut);

67Miguel Rodriguez (Arg); Raphaël Eyraud (Fra); Magnus A Carlsson (Swe); Peter Fowler (Aus);

68Ross McGowan (Eng); Andrew McArthur (Sco); Gary Clark (Eng); Colm Moriarty(Irl); Carlos Del Moral (Esp); Robert Coles (Eng); Eric Ramsay (Sco); Robert Dinwiddie (Eng);

69Richie Ramsay (Sco); Joost Luiten (Ned); Stephen Browne(Irl); Peter Baker (Eng); François Delamontagne (Fra); Fabrizio Zanotti (Par); Hernan Rey (Arg); Stuart Manley (Wal); Gareth Paddison (Nzl);

70Jamie McLeary (Sco); Jan-Are Larsen (Nor); Juan Abbate (Arg); Julio Zapata (Arg); Ben Mason (Eng) François Calmels (Fra);

71James Kamte (Rsa); Iain Pyman (Eng); Inder Van Weerelt (Ned); Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel); George Murray (Sco);

72Alvaro Velasco (Esp);

73Leif Westerberg (Swe); Klas Eriksson (Swe); Liam Bond (Wal); Edoardo Molinari (Ita); Anders Schmidt Hansen (Den);

74Peter Whiteford (Sco);

75Stuart Davis (Eng);