England's Lee Slattery kept his good form going on Thursday with a four-under-par 67 at the ISPS Handa Wales Open.
Only four days ago Slattery shot a final-round 66 at Walton Heath to earn himself a US Open Championship debut, but his opening 67 at Celtic Manor on Thursday was arguably an even better round.
Strong winds and fast-running conditions made life tough on the course, evidenced by the fact that there were more than a dozen scores in the eighties and even one in the nineties.
The Englishman leads Germany Marcel Siem and Dutchman Tim Sluiter by one shot, while four more players lie two shots back after first-round 69s - Spaniards Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Pablo Larrazabal, Sweden's
Joel Sjoholm and Irishman Simon Thornton.
Slattery did have some luck, however, narrowly missing out on finding the water at the short third and only just avoiding going out of bounds at the 580-yard ninth, which still ended up costing him a bogey.
"It was very difficult," he said. "The wind was stronger than anticipated and if you get round without a bogey it's an amazing achievement."
As it turned out, there wasn't a single player who avoided a dropped shot on the day.
Slattery, who has had to make eight trips to the European Tour Qualifying School in his career, is understandably excited about the prospect of his first US Open in two weeks' time.
"I know Olympic Club is going to be difficult, but I'm really looking forward to it," he said.
"It's more the atmosphere. I remember The Open at Hoylake (his only previous Major was there in 2006) and I thrived on it."
Siem, who shares second place, also found the going tough on the day.
"It was gusty, windy and there were firm greens, so three under was good," he said.
"It's really nice to play out here. I love the course and I've had a lot of very good rounds here already. The greens are firm, which suits my high ball flight. You have to think a bit more around the course now because it's a lot
firmer and the traps are in play all of a sudden."
Elsewhere, Scot Paul Lawrie, second on the Ryder Cup points table, opened with a three-over-par 74 to find himself seven shots back.
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