October 24-27
Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, Vilamoura, Portugal
€1,500,000
Live leaderboard
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Louis De Jager made a strong start to his quest to keep his European Tour card at the Portugal Masters after an eight under par first round at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course.

“I made a few nice putts in the beginning and then really hit it well towards the end and kept the momentum going. The greens are very good, they are really fast. I felt comfortable. I left myself in the right spots on the greens, on the right plateaus, which made it much easier. There are some tricky putts on those greens, but I kept it easy for myself today.

“I think everyone is more conscious of where they are (on the Race to Dubai Rankings). My back is against the wall a little bit, for me I can only going forward. I'm using that as extra motivation and encouragement – not that you need it, but that did help a little bit.”

The South African, who started the week in 123rd place on the Race to Dubai Rankings Presented by Rolex, went bogey-free in the Algarve with a round of 63 to sit two strokes ahead of compatriot Justin Walters, England's Oliver Fisher and Australian Jake McLeod.

Fisher, who carded the first 59 in European Tour history at this venue last year, and Walters are also fighting to secure their playing rights for next season, starting the week in 112th and 121st respectively on the Rankings.

“I'm really pleased," said Fisher. "I played very solid today, it was nice to go around and have a lot of chances and feel as though I was in control of what I was doing. Last week was a tough week in France. It's nice to get rid of the clouds which were here on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have blue skies and we're on a course we're all familiar with and it's a nice start to the week.”

McLeod must win or finish in solo second to move above the cut off point, which, as things stand after the first round in Vilamoura, is the top 115 players on the Race to Dubai Rankings, who, at the conclusion of the event, will secure their cards for 2020.

“It's quite wide off the tee, so you can get up there and really give it a rip. But it can be quite penalising around the greens if you miss in the wrong spots – they're running quite fast this week. I found myself on a lot of the good sides today – hopefully I can keep doing that.

“This season has been pretty average, so I've come out here and I'll have a bit of fun and probably go to Q School unless I get the win.”

Benign conditions led to a day of low scoring in the Algarve, with 75 of the 126-man field beating par.