Callum Shinkwin carded a superb 66 to earn a one-shot advantage after the first round of KLM Open in Amsterdam.
The Englishman is in danger of losing his playing privileges following a stop-start campaign but belied his 446th place in the world rankings to take advantage of ideal scoring conditions in the morning to finish on six under par at The International.
The 26-year-old was forced to withdraw at the European Masters last month due to food poisoning before retiring during the second round of last week’s Porsche European Open with a back injury and needs some good results to ensure another season on the European Tour.
However, Shinkwin eased his pain when he reached the turn in 32, courtesy of an eagle, three birdies and one dropped shot, before a blemish-free back nine – which included two more gains – helped him to the top of the leaderboard.
“My golf as of late has not been great as has my health as well,” Shinkwin told europeantour.com. “But the golf is still not there, still very uncomfortable, but I managed to turn it round today and shoot a good round of 66.
“I’m just working hard and if I’m feeling uncomfortable then that means I’m doing the right things.”
English trio Chris Paisley, Matthew Southgate and Sam Horsfield, Scotland’s Marc Warren, Malaysian Gavin Green, Swede Per Langfors and 18-year-old Dane Nicolai Hojgaard were in the seven-strong chasing pack following rounds of five-under-par 67.
Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion and 15-time European Tour winner, led another group of seven players which sit one shot further adrift at the 100th edition of the KLM Open, with only James Morrison threatening the leaderboard from the afternoon starters to sit at four under.
Defending champion Wu Ashun remained in contention at three under par alongside two-time tournament winner Joost Luiten, who was three over after nine holes but carded six birdies on his back nine to join the Chinese player and eight others for a round of 69.
Gavin Moynihan leads the Irish challenge after a two-under 70 in which he carded six birdies.
Paul Dunne recovered from an early double-bogey to card a one-under 71 and sits alongside Pádraig Harrington, while Michael Hoey posted a three-over 75.
SCOREBOARD
British and Irish unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur
66 Callum Shinkwin
67 Sam Horsfield, Marc Warren, Per Langfors (Swe), Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), Chris Paisley, Matthew Southgate, Gavin Green (Mal)
68 Haydn Porteous (Rsa), (a) Koen Kouwenaar (Ned), Romain Langasque (Fra), James Morrison, Scott Jamieson, Rowin Caron (Ned), Sergio Garcia (Esp), Max Orrin
69 Steven Brown, Kurt Kitayama (USA), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Joost Luiten (Ned), Ashun Wu (Chn), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Eduardo Ger Lao Riva (Esp), Reinier Saxton (Ned), Johannes Veerman (USA)
70 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Marco Penge, Daniel Gavins, Sean Crocker (USA), Lee Westwood, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Anton Karlsson (Swe), Hugo Leon (Chi), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Gavin Moynihan, Liam Johnston, Jake McLeod (Aus), Andres Romero (Arg), Antoine Rozner (Fra), Victor Perez (Fra), Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Jamie Donaldson
71 Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Jack Singh Brar, (a) Kiet Van Der Weele (Ned), Jeff Winther (Den), Paul Dunne, Louis De Jager (Rsa), Thomas Detry (Bel), Sven Maurits (Ned), Marcel Siem (Ger), Ashley Chesters, George Coetzee (Rsa), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Scott Gregory, Pádraig Harrington, Thomas Pieters (Bel), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
72 Ricardo Gouveia (Por), David Law, Lasse Jensen (Den), Wil Besseling (Ned), Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Esp), Adam Bland (Aus), Bradley Dredge, Patrick Reed (USA), Chris Wood, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Euan Walker, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Espen Kofstad (Nor), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus)
73 Ben Evans, Richie Ramsay, Matthew Nixon, Niklas Lemke (Swe), Stuart Manley, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp), Nick Cullen (Aus), Adrien Saddier (Fra), David Drysdale, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Romain Wattel (Fra), Tom Murray, Jack McDonald, (a) Bob Geurts (Ned), Pedro Oriol (Esp), Troy Merritt (USA), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger)
74 SSP Chawrasia (Ind), Nick McCarthy, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe), Robbie Van West (Ned), Mike Toorop (Ned), Lee Slattery, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry), Joel Girrbach (Swi), Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn), Jens Dantorp (Swe), (a) Benjamin Reuter (Ned)
75 Matt Wallace, Berry Henson (USA), Grant Forrest, Oliver Fisher, Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor), Harrison Endycott (Aus), Duncan Stewart, Hyo-won Park (Kor), Scott Hend (Aus), Sebastian Soderberg (Swe), Mark Reynolds (Ned), Michael Hoey, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Clement Sordet (Fra), Zander Lombard (Rsa), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Brett Rumford (Aus)
76 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Esp), Max Schmitt (Ger), Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Austin Connelly (Can)
77 Dylan Boshart (Ned), David Howell, David Horsey, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Lars Keunen (Ned), Kim Koivu (Fin)
78 Sihwan Kim (Kor), Javier Ballesteros (Esp), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Robert Karlsson (Swe), Jurrian Van Der Vaart (Ned), Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Alejandro Canizares (Esp), John Catlin (USA)
79 (a) Dario Antonisse (Ned), Jorge Campillo (Esp), David Borda (Esp), Julian Kunzenbacher (Ger), Jin-ho Choi (Kor), David Cooke (USA)
80 Max Albertus (Ned)
84 Davey Porsius (Ned)
85 (a) Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Esp)
