Jonathan Caldwell is just one shot behind the leaders after the opening round of the Made in Himmerland event in Denmark.
The Down native shot six birdies in a round of 67 and would have joined the group of five players in the lead on five-under but for a bogey on the 18th.
Niall Kearney and Paul Dunne both hit level-par rounds of 71 and will start tomorrow just inside the cut mark but Cormac Sharvin has a lot to do after shooting 75.
Having taken 478 European Tour events to win his first title, England's Richard Bland put himself in contention for back-to-back victories.
The 48-year-old became the tour’s oldest first-time winner at the Belfry a fortnight ago and a five-under-par 66 left him in a share of the lead with defending champion Bernd Wiesberger, Korean Yikeun Chang, Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal and Finland’s Lauri Ruuska at the top of the leaderboard.
Matthias Schwab, Dimitrios Papadatos and Laurie Canter are all level with Caldwell, a shot further back.
"I was just happy to get back out playing to be honest," said Bland. "I hadn’t really done a lot last week, I played once with some friends and did a little bit of practice.
"I was coming in a little bit unprepared, but sometimes that’s not always a bad thing. I just tried to carry on where I left off and managed to do that."
Austrian Wiesberger moved into contention with a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth before eagling the eighth.
The 35-year-old, defending the title he won in 2019 after last year’s event was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic, then had bogeys at the ninth and 13th but finished with back-to-back gains, including a 30-footer on the last.
Ruuska’s round included a hole-in-one at the par-three 16th, while Larrazabal was the only one of the leading quintet to complete a bogey-free round.
