With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Martin Erlandsson made a fast start on the opening morning of the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final.
The Swede went into this week’s season finale in 38th place in the Challenge Tour Rankings and in need of a top three finish to stand any realistic chance of gatecrashing the top 20, all of whom will earn their cards for The 2012 European Tour International Schedule.
Erlandsson’s attacking approach San Domenico Golf in Puglia, Italy, yielded birdies at the second, sixth and seventh holes which saw him race into an early share of the lead on three under par alongside Julien Guerrier.
The Frenchman is currently 37th in the Rankings, but did his chances of climbing the 17 places necessary no harm whatsoever with birdies at the third, eighth and tenth holes.
The English duo of Chris Gane (16th in the Rankings) and Steven Tiley (40th), Germany’s Nicolas Meitinger (34th), Austrian Florian Praegant (23rd), France’s Victor Riu (33rd) and Australian Andrew Tampion (35th) currently share third place on two under par.
Tampion will be hoping for a repeat of his heroics of two years ago, when he finished runner-up behind Scotland’s Peter Whiteford to surge from 39th to 15th place in the final Rankings.
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