Félix Mory impressed on day one of the Hopps Open de Provence at Golf International de Pont Royal, setting the early pace with an eight under par opening round of 64.
The Frenchman carded nine birdies and a solitary bogey on home soil to move one stroke clear of countryman Gregory Bourdy, German Jannik De Bruyn and Gudmundur Kristjansson from Iceland.
The 29-year-old made the most of perfect conditions to birdie four of his opening six holes - including a chip-in at the par four sixth – before adding two more gains either side of the turn. A seventh birdie of the round came on the 14th, and despite a dropped shot at the 15th, he would birdie 16 and 18 to move one clear on a low scoring day in Mallemort.
Mory currently occupies 42nd in the Road to Mallorca Rankings and, with just three events to go of the European Challenge Tour season, was delighted with his opening round as he looks to break into the top 20 of the Rankings and earn promotion to the DP World Tour.
“I just played solid golf the whole day,” he said. “We had such good conditions. I got off to a hot start and I was striking it good. I gave myself a lot of chances and because there wasn’t much wind I was able to hit it close.
“I just kept the momentum going. I chipped in on hole six. It was a pretty tough chip actually, but sometimes it happens that way. It kept me going and I felt good the whole round.
“It felt easy to keep it going today but golf is tough. I’ll take those good days and I just try to enjoy them as much as possible.”
Mory was pleased, particularly with his driving on the Seve Ballesteros designed course, and is hoping for more of the same tomorrow.
“I drove the ball really well,” he added. “That set me up for a lot of birdies on the par fives. I hit irons on the par five ninth and after a good drive on hole 14, I had a 50 degree wedge in on that par five. My putting was good as well.
“Tomorrow I’ll just go out there and play golf with no expectations. That’s what I try to do most rounds. Sometimes that’s hard to do but I managed to do that well today.”
Welsh duo Jack Davidson and Oliver Farr, and Damien Perrier and Sébastien Gros from France share fifth place on six under par, with eight players one shot further back in ninth including Englishman Alfie Plant, Italian Francesco Laporta and Scotsman Liam Johnson.
Round two gets under way at 8:10am local time with Mory teeing off alongside Italian Lorenzo Scalise and Swede Joel Sjöholm at 1:20pm.
