Joost Luiten was relishing the pressure to perform on home soil as he made a strong start to his quest to make it a hat-trick of wins at the KLM Open.
The Dutchman won his home event in 2013 and 2016 and an opening 68 was an encouraging return at The International in Amsterdam.
Luiten took good crowds with him despite an early tee time and while he admitted being the home favourite had some downsides, having fans lining the fairways was not one of them.
"It's always fun to play (this event) and especially if you play well, it's a bit more fun than when you struggle with your game," he said.
"I had a decent day and it was good to see all the people out there already.
"I don't think it's the people out there that puts on the pressure. The thing is, if I play in Holland in the month up to the tournament, everybody is going to ask me questions: 'are you going to win it again? How is your game?'.
"Well, we have another couple of tournaments before that and that's when sometimes you think, 'guys, just let me play and focus on my game'.
"But that comes with playing in your own country and I try to enjoy it and luckily so far in my career I've done pretty well."
Luiten started with a bogey after missing the green at the tenth but responded with a tee-shot to four feet at the 11th, made a two-putt birdie on the 15th and left himself just five feet at the next.
It's always fun to play and especially if you play well, it's a bit more fun than when you struggle with your game
A three-putt at the 17th stalled his momentum but a tap-in at the first and a 12-footer on the sixth had him back on track before he missed good chances at the eighth and ninth.
"It's good, it's tough, it's rewarding good tee-shots and that normally suits my game," he said.
"I drove it really well today and I think that's what you've got to do. If you're going to drive it off line, you're not going to have much fun out there.
"I'm quite happy. I felt like I left one or two out there on the last two holes, I had a short birdie putt on my 17 and 18, I wish I'd made one of those but that's golf. I'm happy."
