Julien Guerrier carded a brilliant, battling 65 to open up a one-shot lead after a wild and windy opening day at the KLM Open.
The Frenchman battled wind and rain in the morning at The International and was six under when play was stopped for the first time due to storms in the area.
Upon the resumption he made a brilliant up-and-down to save par on his final hole and set the target, a target that would not come near to being caught as the wind got even stronger for the afternoon starters.
And it was wind that then brought an early conclusion to the day’s play, with all the early starters in the clubhouse and all the afternoon’s players having completed between two and ten holes.
England’s Joe Dean was a shot behind Guerrier, with Swede Sebastian Söderberg than at four under.
Scot Calum Hill was then three back alongside American Jordan Gumberg and Englishman Paul Waring, with the large group at two under containing the best of the afternoon starters, who had battled treacherous conditions.
Guerrier won his maiden DP World Tour title at the 2024 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters and while he could not repeat that success in 2025, he started the new campaign with two top threes in his first four starts as he missed just one of ten cuts.
His form has curtailed a little of late but he arrived in Amsterdam 16th in the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World and was proud of the way he battled the conditions in the Dutch capital.
“I played obviously really good,” he said. “The fairway was really important because from the rough you cannot control the ball and the greens are very sloppy here, so it is tough from the beginning. I think in these conditions sometimes you need to be lucky.
“The toughest thing is to believe when you have 120 metres, for me I would have a seven iron, and normally I am 165, so 45 metres difference is huge and you try to believe and obviously you cannot control everything.”
Starting on the tenth, the 40-year-old hit a smart approach into the 14th and then sandwiched a long birdie putt at the 17th with gains on the par-five 15th and 18th.
His only dropped shot of the day came at the first but he then took advantage of another par five at the third and hit smart irons into the fourth and sixth before the first delay of just under two hours.
“It was frustrating but with my position it was good at the same time,” he said.
He found a nasty spot in the rough on the ninth after the restart but played a beautiful shot to set up a par-saving putt.
“You know the last hole is really tough,” he added. “So I tried to avoid a big mistake and I made a really good up and down which was nice.”
Dean’s 66 was his ninth consecutive under-par round on Tour as he seeks a maiden win at an event where he finished second last season.
The Yorkshireman birdied three of his first four holes and added further gains at the seventh and eighth to turn in 31 before coming home in level par with two birdies and two bogeys.
Söderberg had exactly the same scoring runs as Dean over the first eight holes before the wheels came off with four bogeys in a row from the ninth. He recovered admirably, however, birdieing the 16th and closing out his round with an eagle.
A brilliant holed bunker shot for eagle at the eighth had Waring at five under before he double bogeyed his final hole, while Hill was six under after 12 holes before falling back.
Gumberg, a winner in 2026 at the Hainan Classic presented by MAEXTRO, carded five birdies and two bogeys to sit a shot ahead of home hero Joost Luiten, Frenchman Clement Charmasson, Finn Oliver Lndell, Portuguese Daniel Rodrigues, South African Richard Sterne, England’s Callum Tarren and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger.
Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal, South African Dylan Frittelli and France’s Alexander Levy were also at two under having played ten, nine and five holes respectively.
