2014 champion Joakim Lagergren reversed course with a seven-under-par 63 to take a two-shot lead after day one of the NI Open Challenge Tour event at Galgorm Castle.
Lagergren, 32, had five birdies and an eagle in his clear round, finishing two shots ahead of fellow Swede Per Langfors, 2017 winner Robin Sciot-Siegrist of France and Denmark’s Jeppe Kristian Andersen.
“I feel old knowing it was 10 years ago,” said Lagergren, when asked about his 2014 triumph at the Ballymena venue.
The Swede then won the Sicily Open on the old European Tour in 2018 but lost his DP World Tour card last year after missing 12 cuts in 20 events and entered this week 82nd in the Challenge Tour standings.
“I played really solid today. I feel like my misses were a little tighter than they have been lately, so even when I made a bad shot, they were decent,” he added.
Ireland’s Conor Purcell, England’s Sam Hutsby and Czech Republic’s Jiri Zuska share fifth place at four under par, with nine players a shot further back in eighth, including Ireland’s Gary Hurley.
2011 DP World Tour Championship winner Alvaro Quiros is part of a large group sharing 17th place after a round of 68.
Northern Irishman Jonathan Caldwell shot a 70 to tie with fellow local player Dermot McElroy in a group of 73 that included French pair Alexander Levy and Benjamin Hebert and Scotland’s Marc Warren.