Englishman Tom Lewis and Dane Thomas Bjorn share a one-shot lead after Thursday's opening round at the British Open in Kent.

Both players hit a five-under-par 65, with amateur Lewis breaking a string of records after a memorable day.

The 20-year-old posted the lowest-ever round by an amateur in the 140 years of the tournament and is the first amateur to hold a share of the lead since Michael Bonallack in 1968.

"I play links courses all year, so I've had more advantage than anyone else in the field probably," Lewis said.

"Hopefully I can carry on doing what I'm doing, and hopefully it'll work by the end of the week. But obviously I'm an amateur, so I'm going to make some bad mistakes out there, so I hope I can just limit them."

Were it not for a final hole bogey, the outright lead would have gone to Bjorn, who gained a late entrance into the tournament on Monday thanks to a Vijay Singh injury.

Just eight years ago, Bjorn held a three-shot lead with four holes to play at Royal St George’s in the same tournament, only to throw it away and lose by one to Ben Curtis.

Lewis enjoyed a better finish to the day as he shot four birdies on his last five holes to recover from two bogeys early on the back nine.

A shot adrift of the pair are American duo Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson, and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Glover, the 2009 US Open champion, finished with a hat-trick of birdies to shoot 66 for the day and Simpson also completed his day in style, notching two birdies from the final two holes. Jimenez was more consistent throughout the day and went around the 18 holes blemish-free, as the trio built a two-shot buffer over 12 golfers tied for sixth.

Among that group are Northern Irish pair Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell, world number three Martin Kaymer and local hope Simon Dyson.

Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day, ranked first, second, fourth and seventh in the world respectively, all shot one-over-par rounds of 71.