Alex Salmond is clearly playing too much golf.

"You get him on the links and he knows how to swing, he's got good club head speed and a good touch around the greens," gushed Phil Mickelson during a glowing report of the First Minister's prowess having partnered the tartan-clad heid honcho in the pre-tournament Pro-Am.

It seems that Big Phil is a fan of Wee Eck. The grinning Californian won't know too much about his party politics but the pair do at least have one thing in common. They're both looking to be first past the post in Scotland. Salmond, of course, will have to wait a while yet for that referendum result, but Mickelson can achieve his goal this weekend. He certainly made a purposeful start to the campaign trail yesterday.

While Yorkshireman John Parry, striding out in the sun-soaked early morning conditions that were as calm as a Buddhist retreat, took full advantage with a fine eight-under 64, Mickelson manoeuvred menacingly into the upper reaches of the leaderboard with a six-under 66.

The end result was ideal, even though the opening was far from perfect. Teeing off on the back-nine, the 43-year-old immediately stumbled to a bogey 5 on the 10th. All week long, Mickelson has sounded a bit like a geometry teacher and has made constant references to "angles" as he tries to find the winning formula to conquer the myriad intricacies of the links game. He got his calculations wrong on his opening hole, though.

"My caddie wanted me to play a hybrid a little bit back but I hit a 3-wood further down and didn't give myself an angle to get at the pin," reported the four-time major champion. He ended up some 60 feet from the pin and three-putted. It may have been an early blemish on the card but it was an important eye-opening moment. "It was interesting because that forced me to be patient," he added. "You've got to place it in the right spot and I tried to get a little greedy and it came back to bite me. That bogey was a good wake-up call for links golf."

A putt of 15-feet for an eagle on the 12th swiftly repaired the damage and a further haul of six birdies lifted him up the order. Given that he had started his two previous Scottish Open challenges with 73s, he was pleased to be on the front foot for a change. Now he's hoping the competitive juices really get flowing with the Open looming on the horizon. "Historically, I've played poorly on the Thursday and put myself so far behind, so now I'm not having to battle uphill ," he said. "The best way to get ready for next week is to get into contention here and feel that nervousness and those butterflies. When I won the Masters in 2006, I ended up winning the week before by 13 shots. There couldn't have been a better way to get ready."

As Mickelson made his move, the pacesetting Parry enjoyed a profitable amble around Castle Stuart with a neatly-assembled 64 as the 26-year-old belied his lowly status to be riding high. Parry, who won his maiden tour title at the Vivendi Cup in 2010 but had to return to qualifying school last year to retain his playing rights, is currently 110th on the money list. He ranks 100th on the driving distance order and is 101st on the putts per round list. In this game of numbers, things have not really been adding up to success this season, but it all came together yesterday.

Parry, a GB&I team-mate of Rory McIlroy in the 2007 Walker Cup, was a links golf regular during his amateur days and clearly relished the return to this traditional form of the game. Two weeks after his tour triumph in France, Parry shared third in the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews but he's not had a better finish since. "It's a bit like the amateur days," said Parry, who raced to the turn in 31 and conjured eight birdies in all. "You don't get many chances to play this type of golf on tour. I find it easier to see shots, I like being able to use banks to get out of trouble."

Simon Khan, runner-up in May's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, eagled the 18th in a 65 to sit in second place, while Chris Doak picked up three birdies and an eagle around the turn in a 66 to spearhead the Scottish challenge. He joined a throng on six-under which also includes the sturdy, 16-stone figure of Kiradech Aphibarnrat, of Thailand, and his more slender countryman, Thongchai Jaidee.

Paul McGinley, the European Ryder Cup captain, has plenty on his mind as he prepares for the 2014 showdown at Gleneagles, so it's perhaps not surprising that he has made only two cuts in eight events this season. A 67 yesterday provided a timely tonic as he finished alongside title holder Jeev Milka Singh. Darren Clarke, the 2011 Open champion, had only his second bogey-free round of the year as he posted a tidy 69, but Ernie Els, the two-time Scottish Open champion, could only muster a level-par 72. "It just shows you that if you're a little bit off, this course will bite you," he said. On a day when the birdies and eagles flew in wild abundance at Castle Stuart, the Big Easy certainly didn't find it easy. Maybe the First Minister can give him some tips?