Ryder Cup player Thomas Pieters leads Celtic Classic at Celtic Manor

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Pieters first became a father during the hiatus from golf due to the coronavirus pandemic -7 T Pieters (Bel); -6 J McLeod (Aus), T Tree; -5 S Kim (Kor), M Warren (Sco), S Soderberg (Swe), A Meronk (Pol), G Migliozzi (Ita), N Elvira (Spa), E Molinari (Ita) Selected others: -2 R Enoch (Wal); -1 O Fisher (Eng), C Hill (Eng), J Donaldson (Wal) Full Classification

Thomas Pieters returned from five months away from competitive golf and led the Celtic Classic with one shot after the first round at Celtic Manor.

The Belgian, 28, came home in 29 shots in a seven-under-64 on a day when the game in the European Tour event was eclipsed by positive Covid- 19 tests.

French Alex Levy and Romain Wattel are from of the event after the former tested positive for coronavirus.

Levy, 30, initially returned a negative test, but a retest came back positive.

Wattel and Levy & # 39; s caddy, Tom Ayling, have tested negative so far, but all three men isolate themselves.

Pieters had not paused since March after delaying his return to competitive action following the birth of his first child during the cessation of the coronavirus.

But the Ryder Cup 2016 round on the Twenty Ten track gave him a one-stroke advantage over Toby Tree and Jake McLeod.

Pieters impressed his Ryder Cup debut – he forged a great partnership with Rory McIlroy and set a new rookie record for points earned – but has struggled to reach those heights. achieve in the past three seasons.

"It was pretty good. I put well and kept my ball in play, so I didn't really get myself into trouble," said Pieters.

"It was fantastic. I miss my little girl but I'm thankful to be able to play golf now. It's the first event in five months, so it feels nice to be outside. go and really score. "

The Italian Edoardo Molinari, who was part of the European Ryder Cup winner team at the Newport site ten years ago, is still trailing five under, along with six other players, including Marc Warren from Scotland.

Welshman Rhys Enoch is second under and fellow countryman Jamie Donaldson is one under.