Shiv Kapur refused to get carried away as he posted a 65 on day one the 72° OPEN D'ITALIA presented by DAMIANI to sit just two shots off the lead at Golf Club Milano.
The Indian has struggled this season, sitting 119th in the Race to Dubai with his best finish a tie for 11th at the True Thailand Classic presented by Black Mountain.
And while he admits it has been hard to stay positive, he was delighted to get his game together on Thursday as he posted eight birdies and a bogey.
"If you'd said at the start of the day, '65', I'd have bitten your hand off," he said.
"It's a good start, I got the best of the conditions this morning and the breeze kind of picked up on the back nine but I managed to make most of my birdies on the back so I'm pretty pleased with the start.
"Any time you shoot seven under on the first day, irrespective of the golf course and the conditions, you've got to be pretty pleased.
"I felt like my game has been coming close but I've been getting frustrated with a lack of results. It's nice when things click together but we've still got a long way to go. A good start is only less than halfway done but hopefully I can carry on with the same sort of mindset into the next three days."
He added: "I've been out here for 10 years now and seen so many ups and downs. You realise you're going to see more downs than ups and sometimes you just have to look back and reflect and be your own best cheerleader at times.
"It gets hard, it's easy to get down on yourselves and I've been trying to stay positive. The last three or four months haven't been how I wanted them to be but it's always nice to finish with a flourish (rather) than finish poorly so I'm hoping to have a positive end to the season."
Kristoffer Broberg also carded a 65 to sit two adrift of Nicolas Colsaerts as he finished his round with five birdies and he believes he will be able to compete if he can keep on the fairways of the narrow parkland layout.
"It's similar to my home course," he said. "The tree-lined nature and it's not that long.
"There are a lot of wedges out there but you need to hit the fairway because if you hit the rough it's pretty thick and wet so that's the key."
Mark Foster also had a strong finish as he picked up five birdies on the back nine and he revealed a birdie on ten after making the turn in one under, was the catalyst.
"I didn't go out with hardly any expectations but I had a real solid day, putted well and played great," he said.
"I played well front nine and was just rolling the ball past the edges and my caddie just said, 'just keep doing the same thing'. It's a bit of a cliché but it was true and I rolled one in on ten and it just got me going."
Foster is 116th in the Race to Dubai and admitted he has been disappointed with his form so far this year.
"I've been playing pretty poorly for my own standards and expectations," he said. "It's not been just a case of missing putts, it's not been good enough lately and nobody knows that more than me."
