Victor Pastor and Sam Hutsby share a one stroke lead after they posted five under par rounds of 67 on the opening day of the Big Green Egg German Challenge powered by VcG at Wittelsbacher Golfclub.
Englishman Hutsby started at the tenth and reached the turn one under par before carding four birdies on the back nine without a bogey to join Pastor at the top of the leaderboard late in the day.
Spaniard Pastor had earlier set the clubhouse target having had to contend with strong winds in Neuburg. Birdies on hole one and eight on the way out saw him turn two under par, with further gains coming on 11, 12 and 14 before a bogey-birdie finish.
The 28-year-old was delighted with his putting throughout and is hoping for more of the same on day two.
“I hope I can putt like this every day of my life but I’m not sure that’s possible,” Pastor said. “I made a lot of putts out there.
“It was tough this morning because of the wind. There are some holes that it swirls a bit more on. I wasn’t hitting it that well from the tee but from my second shots I was playing well.
“The last two or three months, I’ve really struggled off the tee. It’s a narrow course from the tee so hitting a good tee shot is important, so because of that, I’m not sure it really suits my game. It’s a tough course but it’s definitely fair.”
Pastor is looking to join countrymen Angel Hidalgo and Alejandro Del Rey as the third consecutive Spanish winner of the event, and he’s sure the experience he had on the same course in 2022 will be important as the course firms up.
“From my experience here last year, the ground was really hard and today it started getting harder too, so that will start to change how it plays.
“My plan won’t change when I get out there tomorrow though. If I can be in the fairway off the tee then leave it to my work on the greens, hopefully I can make some putts again.”
Maximilian Herrmann leads the home charge with the German in a share of third place on four under par alongside Scotsman Daniel Young, David Nyfjall from Sweden, Italian Gregorio De Leo, Frenchman Sébastien Gros and Englishman Ashley Chesters.
Nine players are one shot further back on three under par including Road to Mallorca Number Nine Brandon Stone from South Africa and two-time winner on the Challenge Tour Francesco Laporta.
Day two gets under way at 7:20am local time with Pastor teeing off at 8:48am alongside South African Yurav Premlall and Englishman Charlie Thornton, and Hutsby off at 1:34pm with German Bernd Ritthammer and Italian Andrea Pavan.
