Marc Warren powered to a share of the lead in the Open de Espana after finishing his opening round in style yesterday with five birdies in the last seven holes.
The Scot carded a round of 66 to sit alongside Ireland's Paul Dunne on six under.
Warren, whose best result in seven starts this season is a tie for 53rd, said: "I'm delighted with that start. I finished with three birdies in a row so it kind of makes it look a little bit better obviously. Overall, it was really solid tee to green.
"I putted really well today, my pace was really good. The putts that I missed I didn't leave myself much to do and the good putts always looked like they had a chance of going in."
Dunne also enjoyed a fast finish with three birdies and an eagle on the 18th in a back nine of 31.
"I find the greens quite tricky to read, especially on the front nine, so it was nice to get a couple of putts to go in on the back nine and climb up the leaderboard," Dunne, who won the British Masters last year, told Sky Sports.
World No.4 Jon Rahm carded an opening 67 to lie just a shot off the lead in Madrid.
Rahm, who finished fourth in the Masters on Sunday, carded an eagle, four birdies and a solitary bogey at the Centro Nacional de Golf, where he practised during his amateur days.
The 23-year-old was part of an 11-way tie for third on five under par, which included Spanish amateur Victor Pastor.
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