Robert Karlsson took a share of the Scandinavian Masters Thursday, but this was a young Swedish amateur player rather than his compatriot and namesake, a former European number one and Ryder Cup player. The 22-year-old carded a five-under 67 to stand on top of the leaderboard alongside fellow Swede Alex Noren and South African Jaco Van Zyl. Karlsson had four birdies on the way out to turn in 32 and added further gains at the tenth and 13th. 3 share Evian lead Swede Maria Hjorth, South Korea's Ahn Shin-ae and England's Karen Stupples shared the lead after carding five-under par 67s on a weather-beaten opening day at the Evian Masters in France. The trio led by one from a group of six that included the 2009 winner, Ai Miyazato, and former US Open Champion, Cristie Kerr. With heavy showers and low temperatures making conditions far from pleasant, Hjorth made her move with a glorious outward half of five under par 31 and continued the stunning scoring spree with a run of three birdies in four holes from the 11th. But the 37-year-old then dropped shots at the last three holes, missing greens at the 15th and 16th and then finding bunker trouble at the last. Stupples hit out of bounds and ran up a double-bogey seven at the ninth to reach the turn in a less than impressive one over par 37. Ahn, who was the 2009 Korean LPGA Rookie of the Year, made her five under par round in less rocky style. She packed seven birdies into halves of 34 and 33.
