The Irish duo of Paul McGinley and Rory McIlroy tapped into a fondness for Scotland on the opening day of the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

McIlroy recorded an eagle and two birdies in a three under par 69 to upstaged playing partner, Ian Poulter in both scoring and fashion.

Dewhurst, a clothing company in London, produced four different tartan trousers for McIlroy after he ran a competition on his website.

He claimed yesterday’s pair were a McIlroy tartan but in fact, was a MacGillivray tartan.

Over the next three days he'll wear a Loch Lomond tartan, a purple-based Forever Scotland tartan and a McDonald's tartan, given his mother Rosie's maiden name is McDonald.

“I wouldn't normally wear trousers like this, but I thought it would be fun,” he said.

“I'm just trying to get a bit more support by wearing the trousers, but I couldn't believe it when I found out I was drawn to play alongside Ian Poulter for the first two rounds.

“We were both on Twitter so we were twitting each other last night and giving each other a bit of stick and trying to outdo each other.

“It was quite funny because Ian then sent out a couple of pictures of him ironing his trousers for this morning, so we had a bit of fun with that, but I outscored him by one and hopefully I did him in the trousers department, as well.”

Defending Scottish Open champion Graeme McDowell and Ballyclare's Gareth Maybin each signed off for a 70. The only disappointment was the efforts of Peter Lawrie and Michael Hoey who had 73s.

McGinley put what he described as a 'feel good' factor into effect in producing his best opening score of the season, a six-under par 65.

McGinley's round is his best in 15 events of the 2009 Race to Dubai schedule and his lowest starting score since a similar 65 more than a year ago in the BMW PGA at Wentworth.

It left him in a group in second place on six under par; a shot adrift of Australia's Richard Green.

McGinley has consistently produced good starting scores along the banks of the famed Scottish loch, including 2001 when he secured a tournament best of third.

“There is something about Scotland and I've always enjoyed coming to Scotland,” said McGinley.

“From the moment I checked into my hotel, getting to the golf course plus I come up here to watch Celtic and I see Bob Torrance, so I am familiar and comfortable in the country, and sometimes that has an effect.

“I also have a good record here. My first Ryder Cup year, I had a big finish, third place, which pretty much put me on the cusp of making the team

“So I've I carried that good feeling through into the first round, but there's still a long way to go.”

McGinley capped his round by holing a 25-foot putt for eagle at the par five third hole that he was playing as his 12th. He had earlier birdied two of his opening four holes and ended sinking birdies of four feet and six feet.

Meanwhile, Michael McGeady showed signs of a return to form after a six under par 65 in the Allianz EurOpen de Lyon in France left him just two shots off the pace after the opening round.

McGeady trails first round leaders Andrew McArthur of Scotland and Frenchman Alexandre Kaleka at Golf du Gouverneur in Lyon, but was delighted to be in the mix after day one.

McGeady has struggled to rekindle the form which helped him to victory in the SWALEC Wales Challenge last year, but with his defence fast approaching in two weeks' time, McGeady has found a timely resurgence after a run of three missed cuts.

“I feel I have been playing well and just not bringing it to the golf course,” said the 31 year old from Donegal.

“Today I hit it just as well as I have for the rest of the season and just made some putts and that's the only difference.”

McGeady double bogeyed the 18th, his ninth after a drive buried in the deep rough. From there he hacked it out only to be stymied behind a tree.

The lead was held by McArthur and Kaleka, who is playing his first event as a professional.

Kaleka turned pro after representing France in the World Amateur Team Championships in Wales last week. Among his amateur highlights was finishing second to in the same event at Western Gailes in Scotland three years ago.