DAVID Howell was left frustrated after carding one-under-par at the Johnnie Walker Championship as he made his comeback from a lengthy break.

The 38-year-old Swindonian had not seen European Tour action in nearly six weeks prior to his opening round at Gleneagles yesterday.

Howell birdied the first, third and seventh with a bogey on the fifth ensuring he arrived at the turn two-under.

The former world number nine blotted his copybook with a bogey at the par-four 15th which pushed him back to one-under.

And while Howell has a good chance of making the cut ahead of today’s second round, he admitted that he could have been in a better position on the leaderboard.

“It was frustrating really,” said Howell, who is tied-58th.

“I got off to a nice start and birdied the first hole which was a nice feeling after more than five weeks off.

“I played really well for the rest of the front nine apart from the fifth and made the turn in a couple under.

“Two or three loose tee shots on the back nine cost me, but I played really quite nicely in between so it was a bit of a frustrating one to finish on one-under. It could easily have been a lot better.”

Howell did not birdie any of the four par-fives on the course and had to be content with pars instead, and he conceded that this was something that would have to be remedied today.

“I guess that was part of it, because I didn’t get myself in a good position off the tee,” he said.

“That’s definitely where I let it slip so I need to change that round on Friday.

“That said, I had a couple of six-footers on the 16th and 18th for birdie that I didn’t make, but I need to take care of the par-fives.

“You’re always trying to make the cut, that’s the first thing we’ve got to do, but we’ve got higher hopes than that.

“The break doesn’t seem to have done me any harm and if I can still play well then hopefully I’ll be in a position to get the most out of my round.”

Howell tees off at 8.45am this morning alongside former major champions Jose Maria Olazabal and Michael Campbell.