Zander Lombard carded an 8-under par 63 marred by a single bogey to take a one-shot lead at the Soudal Open.
“Yeah, it was really cool starting this morning,” said the South African. “Perfect weather conditions, no breeze, greens were rolling tremendously. So it was fun to post a score early in the week and see what it has in store.
“I missed the fairway on seven and eight and scrambled two good pars, and I think that kept the momentum to make an outside chance birdie on nine.
“So that definitely kept the momentum going into that back nine, which for me on my eye is the tougher nine. But I felt like I’ve really controlled the ball well, and even when I did miss, I missed it well to give myself chances to, to save par. So all in all, it was a, it was a smart round of golf with two bonus extra shots.”
Lombard had lost his DP World Tour card and regained it for this season with a win at DP World Tour Qualifying School following a return from a seven-month injury lay-off.
His best result so far this year was T33 at the Volvo China Open.
“Especially going into tomorrow, I talk about a lot with my caddy, it’s just keeping that momentum and I’ve just lacked momentum the last couple of tournaments, sort of play well for two out of the four rounds and, it’s gonna be nice to, to build on this for the week,” he added.
Dane Jacob Skov Olesen made one bogey and closed with a 64 for a share of second place alongside South African Richard Sterne who remained bogey-free.
France’s Tom Vaillant signed for a flawless 65 and lies in solo fourth place at 6-under one ahead of a group of eleven players in fifth place, among them England’s Andy Sullivan, Ben Schmidt and Paul Waring as well as Scotland’s Cameron Adam.
England’s Eddie Pepperell, playing in his 300th start on the DP World Tour, made a hole-in-one at the par-3 15th and lies in T50 at 2-under.
Related: The 19th hole has always been part of the round
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LOMBARD, Zander | -8 | 63 |
| 2 | OLESEN, Jacob Skov | -7 | 64 |
| | STERNE, Richard | -7 | 64 |
| 4 | VAILLANT, Tom | -6 | 65 |
| 5 | KINHULT, Marcus | -5 | 66 |
| | LAWRENCE, Thriston | -5 | 66 |
| | SULLIVAN, Andy | -5 | 66 |
| | SCHMIDT, Ben | -5 | 66 |
| | ADAM, Cameron | -5 | 66 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | -5 | 66 |
| DE LEO, Gregorio | -5 | 66 | |
| | COUVRA, Martin | -5 | 66 |
| | LINDBERG, Mikael | -5 | 66 |
| | WARING, Paul | -5 | 66 |
| | CAMPILLO, Jorge | -5 | 66 |
| 16 | DAFFUE, MJ | -4 | 67 |
| | HOSHINO, Rikuya | -4 | 67 |
| | PREMLALL, Yurav | -4 | 67 |
| | BUCHANAN, Jack | -4 | 67 |
| | DE SCHUTTER, Anthony (AM) | -4 | 67 |
| | SCRIVENER, Jason | -4 | 67 |
| | JAMIESON, Scott | -4 | 67 |
| | LANGASQUE, Romain | -4 | 67 |
| | BERGSTROM, Albin | -4 | 67 |
| | KIMSEY, Nathan | -4 | 67 |
| HILL, Calum | -4 | 67 | |
| | ELVIRA, Manuel | -4 | 67 |
| | ZANOTTI, Fabrizio | -4 | 67 |
| | JARVIS, Casey | -4 | 67 |
| 30 | VIDAL, Quim | -3 | 68 |
| | VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, Nicolai | -3 | 68 |
| | KAEWKANJANA, Sadom | -3 | 68 |
| | APHIBARNRAT, Kiradech | -3 | 68 |
| | GRINBERG, Lev (AM) | -3 | 68 |
| | SIEM, Marcel | -3 | 68 |
| | RAMSAY, Richie | -3 | 68 |
| | BALDWIN, Matthew | -3 | 68 |
| | GARCIA, Sebastian | -3 | 68 |
| | DANTORP, Jens | -3 | 68 |
| | KANEKO, Kota | -3 | 68 |
| | ARMITAGE, Marcus | -3 | 68 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | -3 | 68 |
| | LUITEN, Joost | -3 | 68 |
| | PEREZ, Victor | -3 | 68 |
| | CHACARRA, Eugenio | -3 | 68 |
| | REPETTO TAYLOR, Rocco | -3 | 68 |
| | CHARMASSON, Clement | -3 | 68 |
| | DETRY, Thomas | -3 | 68 |
| | FOLLETT-SMITH, Benjamin | -3 | 68 |
| 50 | BIONDI FIGUEIREDO, Frederico | -2 | 69 |
| MANASSERO, Matteo | -2 | 69 | |
| | NØRGAARD, Niklas | -2 | 69 |
| | MOLINARI, Edoardo | -2 | 69 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | -2 | 69 |
| | SYME, Connor | -2 | 69 |
| | GUERRIER, Julien | -2 | 69 |
| | FORSSTRÖM, Simon | -2 | 69 |
| | LEVY, Alexander | -2 | 69 |
| | DING, Wenyi | -2 | 69 |
| | BROOMHEAD, Jonathan | -2 | 69 |
| | MAZZOLI, Stefano | -2 | 69 |
| | ZHOU, Yanhan | -2 | 69 |
| | WILLIAMS, Robin | -2 | 69 |
| | COCKERILL, Aaron | -2 | 69 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | -2 | 69 |
| | LINDELL, Oliver | -2 | 69 |
| | JOHNSTON, Andrew | -2 | 69 |
| | KOBORI, Kazuma | -2 | 69 |
| | PARATORE, Renato | -2 | 69 |
| | CANTERO, Ivan | -2 | 69 |
| | PEPPERELL, Eddie | -2 | 69 |
| 72 | KATSURAGAWA, Yuto | -1 | 70 |
| | PAUL, Yannik | -1 | 70 |
| | ULENAERS, Kristof | -1 | 70 |
| | SCHNEIDER, Marcel | -1 | 70 |
| | HELLIGKILDE, Marcus | -1 | 70 |
| | LAPORTA, Francesco | -1 | 70 |
| | ARNAUS, Adri | -1 | 70 |
| | KIEFFER, Maximilian | -1 | 70 |
| | MEYER DE BECO, James | -1 | 70 |
| | FISHER, Ross | -1 | 70 |
| | BALLESTER, Jose Luis | -1 | 70 |
| | SCHAPER, Jayden | -1 | 70 |
| | HOLLICK, Michael | -1 | 70 |
| | MERONK, Adrian | -1 | 70 |
| | DEAN, Joe | -1 | 70 |
| | SHARMA, Shubhankar | -1 | 70 |
| | FORREST, Grant | -1 | 70 |
| | CLEMENTS, Todd | -1 | 70 |
| | SANDHU, Yuvraj | -1 | 70 |
| | MORY, Félix | -1 | 70 |
| | RAVETTO, David | -1 | 70 |
| | GALLEGOS, Andres German | -1 | 70 |
| | DU PLESSIS, Hennie | -1 | 70 |
| | CABRERA BELLO, Rafa | -1 | 70 |
| | SCHOTT, Freddy | -1 | 70 |
| | CELLI, Filippo | -1 | 70 |
| | DEBOVE, Quentin | -1 | 70 |
| 99 | HALVORSEN, Andreas | Par | 71 |
| | COUSSAUD, Ugo | Par | 71 |
| LAGERGREN, Joakim | Par | 71 | |
| | KO, Jeong weon | Par | 71 |
| | WALKER, Euan | Par | 71 |
| | LACROIX, Frederic | Par | 71 |
| | GIRRBACH, Joel | Par | 71 |
| | SURRATT, Caleb | Par | 71 |
| | TARREN, Callum | Par | 71 |
| | ROBINSON THOMPSON, Brandon | Par | 71 |
| | NAIDOO, Dylan | Par | 71 |
| | BRYANT, Davis | Par | 71 |
| | JONSSON, Tobias | Par | 71 |
| | TOWNSEND, Hugo | Par | 71 |
| | LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo | Par | 71 |
| | CROCKER, Sean | Par | 71 |
| | RITCHIE, JC | Par | 71 |
| | BLOMME, Adam | Par | 71 |
| | FERGUSON, Ewen | Par | 71 |
| 118 | YULE, Jack | +1 | 72 |
| | SENIOR, Jack | +1 | 72 |
| | MCKINNEY, Connor | +1 | 72 |
| | MORRISON, James | +1 | 72 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | +1 | 72 |
| | HILLIER, Daniel | +1 | 72 |
| | STONE, Brandon | +1 | 72 |
| | BERRY, Joshua | +1 | 72 |
| | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | +1 | 72 |
| | GERMISHUYS, Deon | +1 | 72 |
| | HAGHEDOOREN, Arthur (AM) | +1 | 72 |
| | MICHELUZZI, David | +1 | 72 |
| | ELVIRA, Nacho | +1 | 72 |
| | BESARD, Matthis | +1 | 72 |
| 132 | BJERREGAARD, Lucas | +2 | 73 |
| | GUILLAMOUNDEGUY, Oihan | +2 | 73 |
| | LAW, David | +2 | 73 |
| | JORDAN, Matthew | +2 | 73 |
| | TOOROP, Mike | +2 | 73 |
| | HUIZING, Daan | +2 | 73 |
| | STEINLECHNER, Maximilian | +2 | 73 |
| | QUAYLE, Anthony | +2 | 73 |
| | KENNEDY, Frank | +2 | 73 |
| | SKEET, James (AM) | +2 | 73 |
| | BAIRSTOW, Sam | +2 | 73 |
| 143 | PEAKE, Ryan | +3 | 74 |
| | GREEN, Gavin | +3 | 74 |
| | TOLLENAIRE, Jarno (AM) | +3 | 74 |
| | GUMBERG, Jordan | +3 | 74 |
| | COSSEMENT, Nathan | +3 | 74 |
| 148 | GAVINS, Daniel | +4 | 75 |
| 149 | BUIJS, Lars | +5 | 76 |
| | MANSELL, Richard | +5 | 76 |
| | VAN DOREN, Yente | +5 | 76 |
| 152 | BENTEIN, Liam (AM) | +6 | 77 |
| | YOUNG, Daniel | +6 | 77 |
| | JOHNSTON, Ryggs | +6 | 77 |
| | LOGAN, Hunter | +6 | 77 |
| 156 | RODRIGUES, Daniel | +7 | 78 |
