Todd Clements carded a five-under-par 66 to hold a one-shot lead after the opening round of the Amgen Irish Open.
The 28-year-old from England carded five birdies, two bogeys and eagled the 18th – his ninth – to top the leaderboard ahead of Spain's Alejandro Del Ray and Finland's Sami Välimäki at Royal County Down.
Starting on the back nine, Clements – who won his first DP World Tour title at the 2023 D+D Real Czech Masters – birdied the tenth from 15 feet and tapped in for another gain on the par-five 12th.
A wonderful second at the long 18th then created a 17-foot eagle opportunity which was duly taken as Clements raced to the turn in 32.
A birdie from three feet at the first saw him threaten to burst clear only for bogeys at the second and fourth to check his progress.
Clements almost aced the par-three seventh but had to settle for a tap-in gain and made another birdie from nine feet at the eighth.
"I drove it great. I hit a lot of good quality shots, and just hit my ball in the right spaces," said Clements. "My caddie was great today and he had the course mapped out great and it worked well.
"This course is as hard as it gets. Take it day-by-day; cliché. But tomorrow it's going to be cold, it's going to be windy and another gruelling test. Sad as it is to say, I'm probably looking forward to it."
Välimäki mixed six birdies with two dropped shots in his 67, while Del Rey produced a birdie-birdie finish.
World Number Three and home favourite Rory McIlroy was part of a five-way tie for fourth on three under after an opening 68.
McIlroy was in danger of letting a promising round slip away when he bogeyed the 14th and 15th to fall back to level par, but he birdied the last three holes.
“Any time you can shoot three under around this place you have to be happy,” said McIlroy.
“The conditions were pretty tough early on and then the wind seemed to settle a little bit those last few holes and it was nice to take advantage of that and play them the way I did.
“Giving those shots away on 14 and 15, to get more than both of them back on the last three holes was a great way to finish and gives me plenty of momentum going into Friday morning.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start (in Northern Ireland) for a change. I enjoyed being out there, the crowds were great and it was great being out there with Tom (McKibbin) as well.
“Really pleased with how I started and hopefully I can continue into the next three days.”
Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen won a three-man play-off to lift the title in 2015 and was just a shot behind McIlroy on two under after a superb 69.
