Darius van Driel continued his fine start to the 2024 Race to Dubai with an opening 66 to take the first-round lead at the Magical Kenya Open presented by absa.
The Dutchman has two top tens so far this campaign and while he missed his first cut of the season last time out, a return to Muthaiga Golf Club - where he has two previous top-12 finishes, including last year - saw him regain his recent form.
An eagle, five birdes and two bogeys moved him to five under, a shot clear of countryman Daan Huizing, Frenchman Frederic Lacroix, Finn Tapio Pulkkanen, German Yannick Schuetz, Scot Connor Syme and South African Ryan van Velzen.
Van Driel's golfing journey has been a remarkable one, with him giving up the game for a number of years after breaking his hand in a banana boat accident, but he decided to turn professional after finishing second at the 2015 Alps Tour Q-School.
He won the Order of Merit in his maiden season and then graduated from the European Challenge Tour in 2019, the same season he lost in the final of the Belgian Knockout to Guido Migliozzi on the DP World Tour.
Another runner-up finish came at the 2021 Porsche European Open and while he lost his card last season, he regained it at the Qualifying School and sits 37th on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
"It was pretty solid," he said of his opening effort. "Hit a lot of fairways, which you need to do here or you make it very hard for yourself.
"I holed some nice putts, it went exactly how I wanted to play, so I’m happy.
"I see this course more as a links course, fiddly with the altitude and the heat. There’s a bit of scraping it around, I kind of like that golf.
"I have a little bit of a cough, so it’s not ideal for me with the heat and the altitude, but I managed to get through.
"You just have to be patient. You can hit a good drive and still end up in the rough and have no shot, like Marcus (Kinhult) had on ten, or you can hit it left side of the fairway and it kicks back. You’ve got to be very patient, especially with the wind, you just grind it out."
Van Driel made a hat-trick of birdies from the second and leapfrogged the early leaders as he put his second to ten feet at the par-five tenth to set up an eagle.
Bogeys followed on the 11th and 13th but he hit back with a gain on the 16th and then took advantage of the par-five last to hit the front again.
Lacroix had made a lightning start, eagling both the tenth and 18th after going driver-nine iron and adding birdies at the 11th and 17th to turn in 29.
His progress stalled as he bogeyed the first and eighth and he was joined at the summit by playing partner Syme, who made birdies on the 15th, first, third, seventh and eighth, with a single bogey on the second.
Huizing then made it a leading trio from the morning starters, turning in 31 with birdies on the tenth, 13th, 14th and 18th and making two bogeys and two gains on the front nine.
In the afternoon, Schuetz had shared the lead, eagling the tenth and picking up shots on the 13th, third and fourth but he bogeyed the eighth to drop back.
Van Velzen had a birdie-birdie finish and dropped just one shot in his 67, while Pulkkanen also made five birdies and a single bogey.
Englishman Joe Dean got to five under in his round but bogeys on the seventh and eighth slipped him back to three under alongside Dane Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen, Scottish pair Craig Howie and Daniel Young, Kiwi Sam Jones, South African Pieter Moolman, Italian Lorenzo Scalise and Swede Jesper Svensson.
