Open champion Shane Lowry has criticised the state of the greens at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal after a disappointing opening round at this year's Turkish Open.

It is the first time in three years that the tournament has been played at the Colin Montgomerie-designed course on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

The Clara man found birdies difficult to come by but had just one bogey to show for his first round on Thursday.

"I played lovely," said Lowry after his round. "I can't play any better than I did today, I just literally couldn't get the ball in the hole from three feet.

"I barely missed a three-footer all year and I missed three of them in quick succession today."

Lowry, currently third in the Race To Dubai standings, made a great start with a birdie on the first hole but he started to struggle with his putter after that.

The 32-year-old parred every hole until his bogey on 13 and could not regain the stroke as he parred his way to the finish and a level par round of 72.

It leaves him in 52nd place on the leaderboard and seven shots off the lead held Tom Lewis and Mattias Schwab.

"Look, it is what it is but what can I do," added Lowry. "I will just have to go tomorrow and try and do better."

When it was suggested to him that he had just had a bad day at the office, he made his feelings clear about the state of the greens.

"No, the greens are not great to be honest," said Lowry. "I'm not going to stand here and give out too much about it. Being last off wasn't a great draw today.

"I just lost confidence then early on and just struggled. I'll go and do a bit of work now and see if I can find something."

Dublin Padraig Harrington also endured a frustrating day had an ugly ten on the par 5 fourth hole but he birdied three of the last four holes to sign for a 75.

The Ryder Cup captain is in a tie for 71st place.