Tom Lewis threatened to shoot the first round of 59 - or better - in European Tour history on the first day of the Made in Denmark tournament.
The Englishman reached 12 under after 13 holes at the Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort in Farso on Thursday but three late bogeys denied him the chance of making history.
He had to settle for a course record-equalling 62 - nine under par - and a share of the lead with Thomas Pieters and Joakim Lagergren.
Welshman Bradley Dredge was a shot further back, with David Lipsky of the United States, South African Jake Roos and Scotland's Scott Jamieson on six under.
Lewis, who lost his tour card last season, was in blistering form from the outset. Starting on the 10th, he birdied his first four holes and picked up three more to turn in 28. Three more birdies followed in succession and then when he rolled in a 45-foot putt for eagle at the fourth, records were in reach.
But bogeys on the fifth, eighth and ninth cost him and he was left to rue missed opportunities.
Lewis said: "How many people can get disappointed with nine under? It's a tough one but everyone call tell it was on there and unfortunately I came up just short. It was a good round today but a disappointing one.
"Unfortunately it just caught up with me a little bit. I hit some good putts, I hit some bad putts - a couple of good ones that missed, and a couple of bad ones that holed. Maybe I thought too much, or tried too hard, hence the finish."
Pieters, playing alongside Europe's Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, seized the opportunity to impress ahead of next week's wild-card selection announcement.
The big-hitting Belgian posted 10 birdies and just one bogey to continue his strong recent form following his fourth place at the Olympics and runner-up finish at last week's D+D Real Czech Masters.
Pieters said: "I did all I could in front of Darren today. He has a lot on his mind other than golf and we will just have to wait and see. It's up to Darren. If I do win this week, it might get him thinking, but I just have tomorrow to worry about."
Lagergren posted his 62 early in the day, equalling the course record set by fellow Swede Kristoffer Broberg in the final round 12 months ago.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here