Amateur Carolina Melgrati said her dream was coming true after she fired an opening 65 to sit in a four-way tie for the lead alongside three male professionals on day one of the 2022 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed.
The Italian opened her round with back-to-back birdies before dropping her first shot of the day at the eighth.
But a back nine of 30, which contained an eagle and four birdies, saw Melgrati join Craig Howie, Matthieu Pavon and Santiago Tarrio at the summit on seven under par.
Scotland's Howie and Frenchman Pavon each made seven birdies and no bogeys in their first rounds, while Spaniard Tarrio carded eight birdies - including four in a row from the 14th - and a solitary bogey.
Swedish pair Linn Grant and Kristoffer Broberg were another shot further back in a tie for fifth alongside England's Liz Young and Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond.
Melgrati was delighted with her day's work, saying: "It is probably a result of working hard and it is paying off.
"I’m just trying to focus on hitting fairways and hitting greens and then making putts. When it works it’s great, when it doesn’t you just have to go back and practise it some more.
“I didn’t feel a difference between the front and back nine, but I just tried to stick to my processes – nothing really changed in my mind.
“It is crazy! It is so great. As soon as I got the invitation, I said yes, I’m playing because it is great to compete with professional golfers. It is amazing and that is also my dream, so it is coming true.”
Pavon made four birdies in his opening six holes before picking up three more shots down the stretch and was happy with his 65.
“It is a very good round of scoring," he said. "Last week, in the last round I shot one over and that was one of the best rounds I ever had on the golf course.
"The thing is sometimes you have a good bounce, or sometimes you make a chip or a nice up-and-down on the par five, and it’s just the momentum and gives you more opportunities.
"This is a little bit of what I had today, it wasn’t my best ball-striking day but my ball was in play all the time and no big misses."
Bogey-free 65 ✍️
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 9, 2022
The perfect start for @crhowie94 with seven birdies in his opening round. #VolvoScandinavianMixed
Howie was also pleased with his start. He said: "Really pleased, I played nicely, quite solid.
"It was difficult to know how the scoring would be this week, so I was just kind of freeing it up and going."
Tarrio was pleased to keep the big errors at bay as he produced his lowest round of the 2022 DP World Tour season so far.
He said: "I am very happy because it is my first good showing of the year.
"I played well the last round, but I have always had two or three bad swings, making a double or triple bogey which was hard, so I have finally turned this around."
