Starting from the 10th hole at Le Meridien Moscow Country Club, Backstrom had already birdied the 12th and 14th when he holed his second shot at the 561-yard par-five 15th.

"It was a four iron from 233 yards," said Backstrom after completing his round 7-under 65 with two bogeys and four more birdies.

"I hit it well and it pitched on the green and then disappeared, but the people sitting around the green didn't really react.

"They gave me a clap, but not the kind of reaction that you would expect for an albatross so I wasn't sure what had happened.

"But when I walked up to the green it was there in the hole. Thank you very much! It was a great start, five under after six holes."

Backstrom has made just two cuts in his last 10 events and added: "I have to be honest and say that I have been playing rubbish, so anything in red numbers is great for me, and to shoot seven under is perfect.

"I have been struggling with every part of the game. It seems that one week I can't putt, then the next week I can't hit my irons."

Backstrom's early clubhouse target was matched later in the day by fellow Swede Fredrik Henge, Finland's Roope Kakko and England's David Carter.

Carter partnered Nick Faldo to victory for England in the World Cup in New Zealand in 1998, the same year he won the Irish Open.

But the 36-year-old has struggled to reproduce that form since and lost his card at the end of 2007 after finishing 172nd on the money list.

In six events this season he has made just one halfway cut, but produced a flawless round today, going out in 34 and then firing five birdies in a row from the first.

John Daly was five shots off the lead after recovering from a poor start to return an opening 2-under 70.

Former champion Daly carded rounds of 80 and 89 to finish 29 over par and joint last in the Open at Royal Birkdale last week - and was two over par after seven holes in Moscow.

But despite struggling with tendonitis in his left elbow and a hand injury, Daly hit back with three birdies in his last four holes to give himself a chance of making his second halfway cut from four appearances in regular European Tour events this year.

"It could have been really bad," Daly admitted. "I probably hit two of the worst iron shots that I have ever hit.

"They just went dead right off the tee on two of the par threes - I made a good bogey on one of them and just missed my par on the other.

"My hand is hurting pretty badly, but luckily the ground here is soft so I can get through the ball.

"That wasn't possible last week. If the course had been hard this week I probably wouldn't have been able to play."

Defending champion Per-Ulrik Johansson had to settle for an opening round of 69, three under par, after a poor drive on the 18th cost him a double-bogey six.

That was nothing compared to the amateurs.

Alexei Kovalev, the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey star, staggering to a 27-over 99, while former world tennis number one Yevgeny Kafelnikov shot an 89.

ALL THE FIRST6 ROUND SCORES
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

65 David Carter, Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Roope Kakko (Fin), Fredrik Henge (Swe)

66 Darren Fichardt (Rsa)

67 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Garry Houston, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Luis Claverie (Spa), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Sion Bebb, Carl Suneson (Spa), Andrew Marshall

68 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Juan Abbate (Arg), Jamie Moul, Peter Whiteford, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Gareth Davies, Johan Skold (Swe), Ben Mason, Ignacio Sanchez-Palencia (Spa), Michiel Bothma (Rsa), David Drysdale, Robert Rock, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)

69 Richard Bland, Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Paul Waring, Benn Barham, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), Danny Willett, Lloyd Saltman, Stephen Gallacher, Soren Juul (Den), Gary Murphy, Florian Praegant (Aut)

70 Robert Dinwiddie, Niki Zitny (Aut), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), John Daly (USA), Lee Slattery, Andre Bossert (Swi), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Scott Barr (Aus), Jamie Donaldson, Daniel Belch, Sam Little, Manuel Quiros (Spa), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Phil Worthington, Guido Van Der Valk (Ned), Mark Mouland, Philip Golding

71 Jonathan d Evans, Gary Orr, Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Gustavo Rojas (Arg), Christopher Hanell (Swe), Steven O'Hara, Richard Edginton, Sebastien Delagrange (Fra), Markus Brier (Aut), Craig Lee, Peter Baker, Kyron Sullivan, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Lee S James, James Kamte (Rsa), Mark Foster

72 Leif Westerberg (Swe), Branden Grace (Rsa), Rafael Echenique (Arg), Sven Struver (Ger), Michael Lowe, Alfredo Garcia (Spa), Klas Eriksson (Swe), David Higgins, Mark Searle, Magnus Persson (Swe), Christian Nilsson (Swe), Paolo Terreni (Ita), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Stuart Manley, Wesley Horne (USA), Tom Whitehouse, Sam Osborne

73 Emilio Dominguez (Arg), Artern Nesterov (Rus), Juha-pekka Peltomaki (Fin), Pedro Linhart (Spa), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Steve Alker (Nzl), Shaun P Webster, Rob Harris, Kasper Jorgensen (Den), Sam Walker, Gianluca Pietrobono (Ita), Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Chris Lange (USA), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Simon Hurd

74 Neil Reilly, Steven Uzzell , Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Hannes Pfaller (Aut), Iain Pyman, Ben Howlett, Andreas Andersson (Swe), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Cesar Monasterio (Arg), Ross McGowan

75 Tuomas Tuovinen (Fin), Andrey Pavlov (Rus), Ryan c Carter (USA), Simon Griffiths, Simon Lilly

76 Luke List (USA), Mark Nichols , Lasse Jensen (Den), Martin Monguzzi (Arg), Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Sandro Piaget, Joakim Rask (Swe), Trevor Fisher (Rsa), Gary Boyd

77 Gregory Bondarenko (Rus)

78 Matt Laasse (USA), David Griffiths

79 Mikhail Morozov (Rus), Nikolay Afanasiev (Rus)

80 Robin Swane (Ned)

81 Lewis Genney

84 Alexander Gruzdov (Rus)

85 Victor Ostankov (Rus)

89 Evgeni Kafelnikov (Rus)

99 Alexey Kovalev (Rus)