A REVITALISED Andrew Coltart is back where he wants to be and chasing a second Qatar Masters title after taking a share of the firstround lead alongside Ryder Cup duo Henrik Stenson and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Last year Coltart was without a tour card and only competed in Doha thanks to winning the inaugural event back in 1998, and trudged off the final green after missing a putt which would have earned him a guaranteed trip to Dubai the following week.

An invite to Dubai and a host of other events did ultimately follow, but this year he is guaranteed around 25 tournaments – eight more than the number of invites he had to scramble for last year – after finishing 14th at the qualifying school in November.

Coltart joined Stenson and Jimenez in carding opening rounds of 66, six under par, to open up a one-shot lead over Lee Westwood, Robert Dinwiddie, Anders Hansen, Brett Rumford and Louis Oosthuizen.

‘‘My career wasn’t really going anywhere expect down,’’ admitted Coltart, 38, a member of the 1999 Ryder Cup team.

‘‘I was on the career money list and not achieving anything out of that category and ended up losing my card last year and had to go back to Tour school and things went pretty well.’’

LEADERBOARD

66 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Andrew Coltart, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 67 Brett Rumford (Aus), Anders Hansen (Den), Robert Dinwiddie, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Lee Westwood 68 Robert Karlsson (Swe), Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Nick Dougherty, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Paul Broadhurst 69 Damien McGrane, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Oliver Wilson, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Chapchai Nirat (Tha).