England's Laurie Canter carded a brilliant bogey-free 60 to open up a four-shot lead after the first round of the Italian Open.
The 30-year-old made an eagle and 10 birdies to get to 12 under par in a round that was the lowest of his career, the lowest of the European Tour season so far and the lowest at this event since it became part of the Tour in 1972.
The effort also matched the lowest-ever European Tour round to par, although preferred lies meant that Canter was denied a course record at Chervo Golf Club.
After an impressive amateur career, Canter has spent half of his time in the paid ranks on minor tours, needing to graduate four times from the European Tour’s qualifying school before claiming three top 10s in his last eight events.
In Brescia, Canter finished his first nine holes with a hat-trick of birdies after starting on the 10th as he turned in 31.
He then added gains on the third and fourth before sending his second shot to 16 feet for an eagle on the sixth, and another trio of birdies left him clear at the top of the leaderboard.
“It feels great,” he told europeantour.com. “The score, days like that, the back nine there, everything’s gone in. I gave myself some chances and it was just one of those days where you’ve just got to enjoy the ride.”
South African Dean Burmester and Dane Joachim B Hansen were Canter's nearest challengers after they both carded rounds of eight-under 64.
Jonathan Caldwell was the best of the three Irish golfers in action, carding seven birdies in a five-under 67. Cormac Sharvin made six birdies but also dropped three shots in his three-under 69, while Gavin Moynihan will need to go low in his second round after returning a level-par 72.
Leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 72
60 Laurie Canter
64 Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Dean Burmester (Rsa)
65 Richard Bland, Adri Arnaus (Esp), Wil Besseling (Ned), Damien Perrier (Fra), Oscar Lengden (Swe)
66 Robin Roussel (Fra), Matthew Jordan, Niklas Lemke (Swe), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Jack Senior, Ross McGowan, Julien Quesne (Fra)
67 Marcus Armitage, Lorenzo Scalise (Ita), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Mathieu Fenasse (Fra), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Stefano Mazzoli (a) (Ita), Victor Perez (Fra), Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), Aaron Cockerill (Can), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Adrian Otaegui (Esp), Jonathan Caldwell
68 Matt Wallace, Sebastian Heisele (Ger), Jorge Campillo (Esp), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Scott Jamieson, Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Esp), Adrien Saddier (Fra), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Dale Whitnell, Bryce Easton (Rsa), Eduardo De La Riva (Esp), Daniel Young, Louis De Jager (Rsa), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Toby Tree, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Steven Tiley, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Jamie Donaldson, Antoine Rozner (Fra)
69 Ashun Wu (Chn), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Marc Warren, Alejandro Canizares (Esp), Cormac Sharvin, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (Ger), Clement Sordet (Fra), David Horsey, Hurly Long (Ger), Chris Paisley, Alvaro Quiros (Esp), Liam Johnston, David Drysdale, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Dave Coupland, Marcel Schneider (Ger)
70 Ben Evans, Jens Fahrbring (Swe), Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita), Joost Luiten (Ned), Federico Maccario (Ita), (a) Andrea Saracino (Ita), Tom Gandy (IOM), Daan Huizing (Ned), Lars Van Meijel (Ned), Maverick Antcliff (Aus), Johannes Veerman (USA), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), Justin Walters (Rsa), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
71 Steven Brown, Jason Scrivener (Aus), Romain Wattel (Fra), Darius Van Driel (Ned), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Nacho Elvira (Esp), Renato Paratore (Ita)
72 Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Esp), Aron Zemmer (Ita), (a) Andrea Romano (Ita), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Enrico Di Nitto (Ita), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra), Gavin Moynihan, Lee Westwood
73 Joel Stalter (Fra), Ricardo Santos (Por), Wilco Nienaber (Rsa)
74 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), SSP Chawrasia (Ind), Giulio Castagnara (Ita), Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Jordan Smith
75 JC Ritchie (Rsa), Tommaso Perrino (Ita), Carlos Pigem (Esp), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Scott Vincent (Zim)
76 Craig Howie
77 Matthew Baldwin
80 Benjamin Poke (Den)
