Jonathan Yates carded an incredible three eagles on his way to an opening four-under par round of 67 at the Alps de Andalucia.
The Naas professional, who has claimed two podium finished on the Tour already this season, birdied the first and eagled all three par-5s on the Spanish layout to finish within eight of the first round lead.
Dutch player Mike Toorop was leading at 63 (-8) after the first round of the seventh tournament in the 2020 Alps Tour schedule and the first of the two dates hosted in Spain – the second will be next week with Alps de las Castillas.
Toorop, 21, is playing in his second season on the Alps Tour and last year has collected 2 top-tens, finishing 63rd in the OoM:
“Today my game was very good overall, the driving in particular, but also the putting with which I had been struggling in the past couple of weeks. My mindset was positive, I gave myself a lot of chances to make birdies, so I am obviously very happy.
“My best shot of the day? On hole 12, where I hit a soft 8 iron which stopped one meter from the flag, and then I holed for an eagle,” he said.
In fact with 7 birdies, one eagle and one bogey, Toorop has a 2-strokes advantage over a group of four players: Italians Michele Cea (8 birdies, 2 bogeys) and Andrea Saracino (7 birdies, 1 bogey) and Spaniards Lucas Vacarisas (7 birdies, 1 bogey) and Vicente Blazquez (2 eagles, 3 birdies, 1 bogey).
Vacarisas, 22, second behind compatriot Alejandro Del Rey just a couple of weeks ago in France, seems the most in-form player in the group:
“I had good sensations about my game on the course, I only made a mistake on hole 18 when I hit the water and lost one stroke, but that’s a very difficult hole. The course is very nice – you need to hit good tee shots and be precise with the short game – and the weather has been good, so I want to take advantage of it all!”
Full scoring HERE
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