Stuart Manley had a trial at Manchester United and played against 'horrible git' Craig Bellamy... now he is in contention for The Open

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A man who used to play centre half against Michael Owen and that 'horrible git' Craig Bellamy before turning to golf did a wonderful job of protecting his scorecard against the formidable threat posed by Royal Birkdale.

Stuart Manley, the world's 520th ranked player, even gave a spectacular demonstration of attacking play on the final two holes that the two footballers – who are also keen golfers – would surely have appreciated.

The 38-year-old journeyman from Wales holed a bunker shot at the 17th for an eagle three before rolling in a 30ft tramliner at the last for a 68 that left him shadowing the likes of Ian Poulter near the top of the leaderboard.

Stuart Manley had a trial at Manchester United but now has a career as a golfer 

Not even Manley's greatest fan could have seen this coming. Since qualifying for his first major appearance with a runner-up finish in the Joburg Open in January, he has played in 10 events on the European Tour and missed the halfway cut in nine of them.

Even his preparations here were far from smooth, for he was up at 3am to tend to his six-month-old baby. An hour later he was awake again, his mind whirring away as he contemplated his 6.46am tee time. When he got to the first tee it was pouring with rain, the wind was blowing, and he was a bag of nerves.

'I was lucky I made contact with the ball and just relieved that it went forward,' he said.

Manley played against Craig Bellamy and Michael Owen during his time as a centre-half

Manley carded a two-under round of 68 to begin his Open campaign at Royal Birkdale 

After trials with Manchester United and a host of other clubs he gave up on football because, in his own words, he couldn't handle the pressure. 'The problem was, deep down, I didn't believe I was good enough and I didn't really enjoy it,' he said. 'I loved golf so much that every time a game got cancelled I'd be like:'Great, I can go and practice my golf.'

It was while playing football for Mid-Glamorgan that he came across Bellamy and Owen. 

'Bellamy was nasty, a horrible little git,' he said. 'I gave him a few kicks and he wasn't happy. He was just like that all the time. Michael, to be honest, I don't remember that much. We were both very young.'

Manley played for Britain and Ireland in the 2003 Walker Cup but it's fair to say his golf career has been a slow burner. 

'I think there will be more days like this one going forward although this one, to be fair, hasn't quite sunk in yet,' he said. 'But I still love the game and I'm improving every year.'

He was looking forward to one treat on Thursday night– a good night's sleep. 

'I rented a four bedroom house and my coach is leaving tonight so I might just jump in that room,' he said. 'To be fair, my wife usually gets up to look after our son, but I was awake anyway. We were chatting away at three in the morning.'

The thought of your first round at The Open will do that to you – and what a story they had to chat about on Thursday night. 

Manley closed with eagle-birdie to take the clubhouse lead for a short while on day one 

Manley is ranked 520th in the world and missed nine cuts in his last 10 tournaments