The only thing that disappointed Laurie Canter about his sparkling 64 on the opening day of the Portugal Masters was the fact that his friends were not there to see it in person.
Canter carded seven birdies and no bogeys on Thursday morning to sit three shots behind overnight leader Liam Johnston in third place.
In ordinary circumstances, Canter would be joined at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course by a number of fans from his native Bath but due to coronavirus restrictions, they are not present this week.
He said: "I think this is my fifth time playing here and the biggest shame is there is usually quite a big cohort from Bath that come and watch.
"I’ve got a couple of really good mates that come along, they come along every year and they love it so they’ll be gutted, especially as I’ve started playing alright!"
Canter started the day strongly, following up a birdie on the second with a hat-trick of gains at the fourth, fifth and sixth - where he chipped in - to jump to four under.
The 30-year-old then took advantage of the par three eighth to reach the turn in 30 shots.
He continued to create chances as he began the back nine, narrowly missing birdie putts from just inside ten feet at the tenth and 11th.
Canter got a huge slice of luck at the 12th as his approach shot narrowly avoided the water and he went on to save par and remain at five under.
Another birdie chance came and went at the short 13th as his 20 foot effort just evaded the hole, while he also missed his birdie try from a similar distance on the 14th.
Canter finally broke his run of pars with a birdie from five feet on the 15th before just missing another birdie putt from around 15 feet at the 16th.
After his eagle putt from 20 feet at the 17th pulled up just short, Canter tapped in for a birdie to move to seven under before closing his round with a par.
"I’m really happy with that," he added. "I think the key thing this week is going to be hitting it on the fairways and I managed to do that really well.
"If you do that then it plays kind of how it has in the past but if you don’t, with this rough, then it’s like a different golf course.
"I’ll just try to keep hitting it as straight as you can and go from there I think."
