Rasmus Højgaard tied the course record with a 9-under 62 on Thursday, marred only by a bogey at the par-3 second hole, to take the opening lead in the Cazoo Open de France.
“Today was very good,” said the Dane. “To be fair, I don’t feel like I was that good off the tee but my approach play was very good today, alongside a very good putter.
“I holed a few long putts out there but you have to do that to shoot nine under.
“It’s quite cool to have a course where you need to think your way round a bit. That’s what this course gives you. It tests you in all parts of your game.”
Sweden’s Alexander Björk remained bogey-free and closed with a 64 to take second place.
“It felt really good. I’ve not had too many of these rounds this season so far so it was a lot of fun to have the feeling again that you can actually hit the ball where you want and hole a few putts as well.
“I was in very good control of my feelings today so it was nice.”
France’s Paul Barjon lies in solo third place at 6-under followed by compatriots Julien Brun and amateur Martin Couvra in a share of fourth place at 5-under alongside England’s James Morrison, Wales’ Jamie Donaldson and Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen.
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HØJGAARD, Rasmus | -9 | 62 |
| 2 | BJÖRK, Alexander | -7 | 64 |
| 3 | BARJON, Paul | -6 | 65 |
| 4 | BRUN, Julien | -5 | 66 |
| | COUVRA, Martin (AM) | -5 | 66 |
| | PULKKANEN, Tapio | -5 | 66 |
| | DONALDSON, Jamie | -5 | 66 |
| | MORRISON, James | -5 | 66 |
| 9 | MACINTYRE, Robert | -4 | 67 |
| | PIETERS, Thomas | -4 | 67 |
| 11 | PAUL, Yannik | -3 | 68 |
| | FITZPATRICK, Alex | -3 | 68 |
| | JANEWATTANANOND, Jazz | -3 | 68 |
| | SMITH, Jordan | -3 | 68 |
| | QUIROS, Alvaro | -3 | 68 |
| | PAVON, Matthieu | -3 | 68 |
| | COETZEE, George | -3 | 68 |
| | DECOTTIGNIES-LAFON, Mathieu | -3 | 68 |
| | HOWIE, Craig | -3 | 68 |
| | VAILLANT, Tom (AM) | -3 | 68 |
| 21 | CALDWELL, Jonathan | -2 | 69 |
| | MIGLIOZZI, Guido | -2 | 69 |
| | ROZNER, Antoine | -2 | 69 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | -2 | 69 |
| | SODERBERG, Sebastian | -2 | 69 |
| HORSEY, David | -2 | 69 | |
| | GUILLAMOUNDEGUY, Oihan (AM) | -2 | 69 |
| | VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, Nicolai | -2 | 69 |
| | WILSON, Andrew | -2 | 69 |
| | APHIBARNRAT, Kiradech | -2 | 69 |
| | JAMIESON, Scott | -2 | 69 |
| | HØJGAARD, Nicolai | -2 | 69 |
| | PEREZ, Victor | -2 | 69 |
| | GONNET, Jean-Baptiste | -2 | 69 |
| | LOMBARD, Zander | -2 | 69 |
| | SCHNEIDER, Marcel | -2 | 69 |
| 37 | LAWRENCE, Thriston | -1 | 70 |
| | KANAYA, Takumi | -1 | 70 |
| | HANSEN, Joachim B. | -1 | 70 |
| | SURI, Julian | -1 | 70 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | -1 | 70 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | -1 | 70 |
| | PIGEM, Carlos | -1 | 70 |
| | KEARNEY, Niall | -1 | 70 |
| | KJELDSEN, Søren | -1 | 70 |
| | FERGUSON, Ewen | -1 | 70 |
| | BROBERG, Kristoffer | -1 | 70 |
| | SYME, Connor | -1 | 70 |
| | SOUTHGATE, Matthew | -1 | 70 |
| | LONG, Hurly | -1 | 70 |
| SANTOS, Ricardo | -1 | 70 | |
| | VÄLIMÄKI, Sami | -1 | 70 |
| 53 | HEND, Scott | Par | 71 |
| | TARRIO, Santiago | Par | 71 |
| | FISHER, Oliver | Par | 71 |
| | FORREST, Grant | Par | 71 |
| | MØLLER, Niklas Nørgaard | Par | 71 |
| | COCKERILL, Aaron | Par | 71 |
| | OLESEN, Thorbjørn | Par | 71 |
| | GARCIA-HEREDIA, Alfredo | Par | 71 |
| | VEERMAN, Johannes | Par | 71 |
| | KORHONEN, Mikko | Par | 71 |
| | KIEFFER, Maximilian | Par | 71 |
| | LEWIS, Tom | Par | 71 |
| | CAMPILLO, Jorge | Par | 71 |
| | STONE, Brandon | Par | 71 |
| | LACROIX, Frederic | Par | 71 |
| | SIEM, Marcel | Par | 71 |
| | KINHULT, Marcus | Par | 71 |
| | WARREN, Marc | Par | 71 |
| | LAGERGREN, Joakim | Par | 71 |
| 72 | GREEN, Gavin | +1 | 72 |
| | JOHANNESSEN, Kristian Krogh | +1 | 72 |
| | GARCIA RODRIGUEZ, Sebastian | +1 | 72 |
| | MERONK, Adrian | +1 | 72 |
| | STORM, Graeme | +1 | 72 |
| | CROCKER, Sean | +1 | 72 |
| | GAVINS, Daniel | +1 | 72 |
| | SALE, Julien (AM) | +1 | 72 |
| | NEMECZ, Lukas | +1 | 72 |
| | PINEAU, Pierre | +1 | 72 |
| | MCEVOY, Richard | +1 | 72 |
| | SHARVIN, Cormac | +1 | 72 |
| | FICHARDT, Darren | +1 | 72 |
| | STERNE, Richard | +1 | 72 |
| | DRYSDALE, David | +1 | 72 |
| | FOX, Ryan | +1 | 72 |
| | SINGH BRAR, Jack | +1 | 72 |
| | VAN TONDER, Daniel | +1 | 72 |
| | LEMKE, Niklas | +1 | 72 |
| | BJERREGAARD, Lucas | +1 | 72 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | +1 | 72 |
| | PERRIER, Damien | +1 | 72 |
| | FARR, Oliver | +1 | 72 |
| | WOOD, Chris | +1 | 72 |
| 96 | GALLACHER, Stephen | +2 | 73 |
| | LORENZO-VERA, Mike | +2 | 73 |
| | BJØRN, Thomas | +2 | 73 |
| | HEISELE, Sebastian | +2 | 73 |
| | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | +2 | 73 |
| GUERRIER, Julien | +2 | 73 | |
| | McGOWAN, Ross | +2 | 73 |
| | ANGLES, Pep | +2 | 73 |
| | LEGENDRE, Nathan (AM) | +2 | 73 |
| | DU PLESSIS, Hennie | +2 | 73 |
| | JORDAN, Matthew | +2 | 73 |
| | SAMOOJA, Kalle | +2 | 73 |
| | DE JAGER, Louis | +2 | 73 |
| | ZHANG, Huilin | +2 | 73 |
| | REED, Patrick | +2 | 73 |
| | LAPORTA, Francesco | +2 | 73 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | +2 | 73 |
| | MURRAY, Zach | +2 | 73 |
| | WHITNELL, Dale | +2 | 73 |
| | KENNEGARD, Jesper | +2 | 73 |
| | HAVRET, Grégory | +2 | 73 |
| | GAGLI, Lorenzo | +2 | 73 |
| | HOWELL, David | +2 | 73 |
| 119 | FIGUEIREDO, Pedro | +3 | 74 |
| | JACQUELIN, Raphaël | +3 | 74 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | +3 | 74 |
| | RAMSAY, Richie | +3 | 74 |
| | PAISLEY, Chris | +3 | 74 |
| | SHARMA, Shubhankar | +3 | 74 |
| | CHESTERS, Ashley | +3 | 74 |
| | LE GOFF, Hugo (AM) | +3 | 74 |
| | BROWN, Steven | +3 | 74 |
| | MOLINARI, Edoardo | +3 | 74 |
| | MANSELL, Richard | +3 | 74 |
| | COUPLAND, Dave | +3 | 74 |
| | FORD, Matt | +3 | 74 |
| 132 | HEBERT, Benjamin | +4 | 75 |
| | PARATORE, Renato | +4 | 75 |
| | LEON, Hugo | +4 | 75 |
| | NIENABER, Wilco | +4 | 75 |
| | ANTCLIFF, Maverick | +4 | 75 |
| | PORTEOUS, Garrick | +4 | 75 |
| | ROUSSEL, Robin | +4 | 75 |
| | STALTER, Joël | +4 | 75 |
| | BOURDY, Grégory | +4 | 75 |
| 141 | HANNA, Chase | +5 | 76 |
| | HUIZING, Daan | +5 | 76 |
| | BESSELING, Wil | +5 | 76 |
| | LIESER, Ondrej | +5 | 76 |
| | CANTER, Laurie | +5 | 76 |
| | SULLIVAN, Andy | +5 | 76 |
| | DUBUISSON, Victor | +5 | 76 |
| | GANDON, Jeremy | +5 | 76 |
| | CAÑIZARES, Alejandro | +5 | 76 |
| 150 | PORTEOUS, Haydn | +6 | 77 |
| | LEVET, Thomas | +6 | 77 |
| 152 | KAWAMURA, Masahiro | +7 | 78 |
| 153 | LANGASQUE, Romain | +8 | 79 |
| 154 | BEKKER, Oliver | +9 | 80 |
| W/D | SENIOR, Jack | - | - |
| W/D | SCRIVENER, Jason | - | - |
Simon Bale
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