A relaxed and refreshed José-Filipe Lima put himself firmly in contention for a second European Challenge Tour title of the season with an opening round of 67 at the Terre dei Consoli Open.
The Portuguese, who represented his country at the Olympic Games this summer, sat in second place after the first morning at Terre dei Consoli Golf Club, two shots behind early leader Rhys Enoch who shot a seven under par first round.
The 34 year old has only played 12 events on the Challenge Tour this year – one of which was his victory at the Najeti Open – and he credited his season-long plan to remain fresh for the important final stretch with allowing him to deliver when it mattered in Italy.
“I played really well,” he said. “I got lucky once – I missed the green and hit the flag with the chip and it went in for birdie, but the rest I was putting for birdie every green and missed quite a lot of short ones.
“I’m quite happy though, I’ve been working well with my caddie and everything is coming on well, and I’m just trying to do that for the rest of the season because now, five tournaments to go, if I keep doing what I’m doing now it will be good for me.
“It’s a very good course for my game. You have to strike the ball really well from the tees and that’s the best part of my game, but it’s not easy as well – normally on the Challenge Tour you can spray it a little but not this week with the rough.
“I’ve not been playing much this year because I’ve always been thinking of the end of the year, I know how tough it is with the final five or six weeks when you are tired, but I’ve been playing well.
“I’m at the stage I was expecting to be right now, I just need to keep making birdies and hopefully I can do something good, but this was my plan from the beginning and at the moment it’s going ok.
“I’m feeling really well, and I’m not saying that just because I shot five under today. I was really solid, no mistakes, and it was a good day.”
Bravery = birdie 🐦
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) October 6, 2016
A stunning tee shot on 17 from @jflimagolf and he moves to 2 under par at the #TDCOpen pic.twitter.com/oPmLzTixJM
Lima even went within inches of a hole-in-one on the eye-catching 17thhole, daring to take on a pin tight to the front of the island green.
“That was so close, I didn’t even realise,” he said. “And would have won an electric trolley I think, but I never even thought about it until after the ball had stopped so close.
“The pin was tight to the front but I had a really good yardage for my club, so it didn’t matter where the water was, it was a normal shot for me and I was lucky – almost very lucky!”
