At the top of a cosmopolitan leaderboard, a one-man league of nations in Justin Rose took the joint lead yesterday after the first round of the £3m BMW PGA Championship.

At the top a cosmopolitan leaderboard - seven countries are represented among the top 11 - a one-man league of nations in Justin Rose took the joint lead yesterday after the first round of the £3m BMW PGA Championship.

The 26-year-old South Africa-born, US-based Englishman, playing in his first tournament in Europe since the Barclays Scottish Open almost two years ago, had a six-under-par 66 over the West course at Wentworth to sit alongside a much more English Englishman in Paul Broadhurst, the 41-year-old from Walsall.

Rose is back in Britain as a result of making the world's top 50 with good form this season that has included a win in Australia and a joint-fifth place finish in the Masters.

That has taken him to No.28 and he can pick and choose his events around the elite fields for the majors and world golf championships. "Playing in key events like this is a reward for breaking into the top 50," said Rose, who grew up in the area around the Surrey course and said he felt like he had come home.

He was even able to detect an English tone to the cheer he was given when he holed a 12-footer for his eighth birdie of the day at the 16th. He tried to demonstrate with throaty noises how it differed from American ones. "It's more of a whaayy, raahh as the speed typist took it down," he said, before adding: "It's almost trademarked as a Faldo Open roar."

The first reaction noise he heard was his own sigh of relief as he scrambled a par at the first, two-putting from 60 feet before sticking an eight-iron up to five feet for a birdie at the short second.

"That settled things down and I felt like I was off and running," said Rose who has not played since the Masters because of a back problem.

Rose, who holed three birdie putts of more than 20 feet, had one big moment of luck when a pulled drive at the 15th hit a spectator's backpack when heading into trouble, and the ball rebounded leaving him a four-iron shot and a 30-footer for an unlikely 3.

Broadhurst hit only five of 14 fairways but had just 21 putts, and had a word for playing partner Paul Lawrie, who had less luck with errant tee shots.

The Scot was four over after five before recovering to a two-over 74 and Broadhurst said: "He hit a couple of bad drives that cost him big-time, but he's hitting enough good shots. He just has to get rid of the one bad shot that he hits left."

The top 10 on 68 or better comprise three Englishmen, two South Africans, a Finn, an Italian, an Australian, two Indians and a Korean, but sadly no Scots. The best of the 14 home players were Marc Warren and Colin Montgomerie on 70.

Warren's high point was an eagle 3 at the 12th courtesy of two three-woods and a 15-foot putt that took him to four under, with low points a missed three-footer at the 13th and one-footer at the 17th. "I let it slip, but at least I'm only four behind," he said after a closing birdie.

Montgomerie was back in two-under 35 and said he was looking forward to an earlier start today when the greens will be better. "They are very fast and quite spongy on top," he said. "There are footprints, they are growing and that makes it very difficult to score."

Alastair Forsyth was the only other Scot under par. He reached the turn in three-under 32 before taking a club too many at the short 10th where his five-iron went a few yards too far, bounced over the back into a difficult lie from where he could only make 5. "That was a momentum-killer," he said, after two closing birdies for a 71.