Larrazabal holds one-stroke French lead

(CNN) -- Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal hit a six-under-par 65 to hold a one-shot lead over Peter Lawrie and Oliver Fisher after the first round of the EPGA French Open at Le Golf National in Versailles.

The 2007 U.S. Open Champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina is just two shots off the pace on four-under after an opening 67, while defending champion Graeme Storm made a positive start to his title defense to join Jeev Milkha Singh and another 10 players on three-under.

Larrazabal, 25, whose elder brother is former British Amateur champion Alejandro, said working on his father's fish farm had strengthened him for turning professional.

"I worked there for seven months and it was really hard work," said Larrazabal, who qualified for this event by winning the pre-qualifying tournament at Chantilly last week.

"First of all I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning because the fish wake up at 7:00am and I had to be there when the fish wake up. My life there was tough. I was there from 7:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon.

"Then I would have a quick lunch and go to practice and then I would go and have my driving lessons in the evening. It was a lot of hard days for seven months!

"My dad wanted me to see how normal people work for a living, so before I turned pro he wanted me to experience all of that and I am glad that I did it.

"I played good today -- I had that one bogey on the ninth, which was my last hole of the day but I am happy with the score. That is probably the best round that I have had this year and I am starting to get used to life on The European Tour."

Another man getting used to life on Tour is the 19-year-old Fisher, while Lawrie is hoping to get used to that winning feeling after his maiden European Tour win at the Open de Andalucia earlier in the season.

The two men currently occupying second spot in the leaderboard could not have had more similarly contrasting rounds.

Fisher carded nine threes on to his scorecard and Lawrie racked up an unbelievable 10, but Fisher's card was bogey-free while Lawrie treated the French crowds to a true rollercoaster round, that contained 10 birdies, four pars, a single and a double bogey.

"I just played nicely all day," said Fisher. "I have been putting a lot of hard work over the last few weeks. Last week I played nicely -- I shot 71-70-71-71 last week so it was consistent -- and today I just went out there and did what I normally do and made a few putts on the par fours. It was a solid round.

"I think my near-miss in Spain was a great confidence boost for me. To be paired with Lee Westwood in the last two rounds and to outplay him by a couple of shots was good in itself. Obviously I lost in the play-off but that was really the first time that I have been in contention."