Anton Karlsson and Benjamin Hebert claimed a share of the B-NL Challenge Trophy lead after both fired six under par rounds of 65 on the opening day at Twentsche Golfclub in the Netherlands.
Swede Karlsson was level par at the turn before carding six birdies on the back nine, including three gains on his final three holes to reach six under par. Frenchman Hebert started his round on the 10th and joined Karlsson on six under par by mixing eight birdies with two bogeys.
The duo lead by one from German Velten Meyer and Englishmen Alfie Plant and Jamie Rutherford who share third on five under par.
Hebert, a six-time winner on the Challenge Tour having won three times in both 2011 and 2014, was pleased to get off to a good start and thinks ball placement at Twentsche could be the key this week.
“It’s really good to get a few under par,” he said. “I didn’t start very well today, but when I made a birdie on 18, it built good momentum. After that I holed some very good putts.
“It’s tricky out there for sure. I didn’t play very aggressively today because the wind was a little bit different to the practice round, so I tried to put myself in good positions. I probably had to hit some longer shots to the green but I was pretty accurate with my irons.
“There’s a lot of good players, and some young guns, so some guys will probably be more aggressive than me and they might shoot low, but I think you need to be smart on this golf course.”
The 36-year-old has made three cuts from four starts on the Challenge Tour this season, with his best performance coming earlier this month at the UAE Challenge where he finished in 29th place. He feels the course set up is more to his liking in the Netherlands and attributes the strong start to his hard work on the putting green in between events.
“It’s a tight golf course which I think is more suited to my game, especially after being in Abu Dhabi recently where the courses were wide and long.
“I’ve worked hard on my putting as I haven’t putted well so far this year. I just came here trying to find a good roll on the greens.
“The greens are very different to where we’ve played so far this year. They’re firm, so you need to be confident on your speed, trust your stroke and it happened very well for me.”
In sixth place on four under par are Italian Andrea Pavan, Swiss Cedric Gugler, Finn Roope Kakko, Dutchman Vince van Veen and English trio Oliver Fisher, Sam Bairstow and Tom Sloman.
Round two gets underway at 7.30am local time with Hebert teeing off at 1.40pm alongside Swede Oscar Lengden and Northern Irishman Cormac Sharvin, while Karlsson tees off at the same time from the 10th tee alongside Belgian Kristof Ulenaers and Frenchman Clement Berardo.
