Joakim Lagergren carded a bogey-free 7-under par 65 at the Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate to take a one-shot lead at the Investec South African Open Championship.
The Swede suferred an ankle injury in the summer and finished 170th in the Race to Dubai leading to a sixth visit to Q School where he was unsuccessful at regaining his Tour card. He is playing the Opening Swing on a medical exemption and Thursday's round was his lowest since March.
"Golf was fun today. It is a tough course, it's long so to shoot seven under around here, I'm very pleased with that.
"We had a par-three today which [was] 240 metres, I'm not sure if I've experienced that before. It is long, you very rarely get wedges into par fours.
"If you're playing well, you're going to hit a lot of greens so it's pretty good to have control with the putter. Lag putting is going to play a huge part this week when you're going to hit a lot of greens but be maybe 20 metres way. I did that well today.
"It feels like it's been a while since I've been in contention so I'm looking forward to it."
Blair Atholl is the longest course in DP World Tour history and features five par-5s, four of which are over 600 yards.
South Africa's Casey Jarvis signed for a 66 to take solo second place one ahead of compatriots Louis de Jager and Javan Rebula as well as Englnd's Andy Sullivan.
