Pedro Oriol continued his impressive recent form by carding an opening round of 64 at the Swedish Challenge hosted by Robert Karlsson.
Having finished in the top 20 in four of his last five starts on the European Challenge Tour, the Spaniard sits in 15th place in the Road to Oman Rankings.
The 31 year old immediately went about extending that fine run by making two eagles in his first four holes at Katrineholms Golfklubb.
Back-to-back birdies at the eighth and ninth were followed by consecutive gains at the 13th and 14th, meaning Oriol overtook clubhouse leader Erik van Rooyen at the top of the leaderboard.
After a birdie-bogey finish to reach eight under for the day, Oriol believes his game is in great shape – and is full of confidence for the rest of the week.
“Everything was good,” he said. “I hit the ball very purely, my short game was very sharp and my putting was unbelievable. I did three-putt the last hole but despite that it was a great round.
“Two eagles in my first four holes was obviously an excellent start and I hit it pretty close on both of them. I didn’t hole any long putts today, but my iron game was very good which is really important because of the small greens here.
“In all the cuts that I’ve made my worst result was finishing 22nd, so I feel like I’m in really good form at the moment. I was really close to winning in Belgium too and I just need to keep that form up for the rest of the week.”
One back from Oriol is South Africa’s van Rooyen who set the clubhouse target at seven under after a blemish-free round of 65.
Five Swedish players finished the day inside the top 25 in Katrineholm, including Challenge Tour winner Oscar Floren.
