Rikard Karlberg carded a six under par 61 to take a one stroke lead after the first round of the Dormy Open.
The Swede, playing on home soil at Askersunds Golfklubb, made a fast start with an eagle and a birdie in his opening three holes and he made four further gains after the turn as he signed for a 61.
He is one stroke ahead of compatriot Adam Blomme, Conor O’Rourke of Ireland and Englishman Brendan Robinson-Thompson.
Weather ahead of the tournament allowed Karlberg to take an aggressive approach as he made the most of the soft conditions in Åmmeberg.
“I’m very happy, I got off to a great start,” he said. “I hit the shots I needed to hit and good putts.”
“When playing the longer irons in, you feel really comfortable that they’ll sit right down and you can be more aggressive.”
“The wind came up when we started but the last five it died off and now we just have a beautiful Swedish summer evening so I really enjoyed this.”
“I’ve never played it before so when its this kind of course where you need to be more strategic and playing soft it’s in my favour.”
“You just have to hit your shots for four days to have a good chance at the end. I’m really happy with my start and we’ll see if this is my week in the end”.
The Swede is no stranger to success as he won the Italian Open on the DP World Tour in 2015, and also finished runner-up at the BMW PGA Championship in 2016.
Finishing one shot further back of the trio in second place are Sebastian Friedrichsen of Denmark, Spain’s Manuel Elvira, Jesper Svensson of Sweden, Austrian Niklas Regner and David Boote of Wales.
Play resumes on Friday Morning with Matt Ford, Julian Suri and Roope Kakko teeing off at 7:30am. First round leader Karlberg will begin his second round at 1:50pm in the company of Mathieu Decottignies-Lafon and Koen Kouwenaar.
