Ian Poulter is renowned for his nerves of steel but admitted to feeling the jitters as he prepared to tee off in his own tournament at his home club of Woburn on Thursday.
The British Masters supported by Sky Sports is back on the The European Tour International Schedule for the first time in seven years and Poulter is acting as host on a course he has played many times.
The 39 year old is a 12-time winner on the European Tour, including two World Golf Championships and the Volvo World Match Play Championship which he won in 2011.
He also famously made five consecutive birdies in the afternoon fourballs on the second day of the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah to drag Europe back from the brink and help them complete a remarkable comeback as he won all four of his matches in Illinois.
With a CV like that, you would not think that Poulter would be a man to experience nerves on the course he calls home but, after firing an opening 68 in front of just under 15,000 fans, he admitted he felt the buzz of anticipation.
"I got a nice tingle, shall we say," he said. "It hasn't been there for a long time on a Thursday in a regular tournament.
"To have that was really nice, to be honest. It's unusual when you get that feeling, but it was a good one and obviously nice to get off to a decent start.
"It literally was two minutes before teeing off. It's just like, 'all right, okay. Just an easy three wood up the middle'.
"I've really got to concentrate now because I need to. The fairway just shrinks a lot and that's good. It makes you focus. It's nice to get that feeling, especially on a Thursday."
Fellow Englishmen Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald will also play host to the tournament in future years and Poulter is delighted to see it back on the calendar and back at the course where he was narrowly beaten by Rose in 2002.
"It was lovely," he said. "The buzz last night, I didn't know what to expect coming into the week.
"This is a first. It's going to be a first for Luke and Justin and obviously me. They are going to feel the same. Big responsibilities, lots of things to do, lots of commitments. You have to manage those, but you can have the buzz on that first tee because you've spent a bit of time. You care about it.
"The Tour has done a great job and Sky Sports has done a great job. It's good that we have got this back on the calendar."
The opening day saw 15,000 tickets given away as part of Sky Sports Thursday and Poulter was pleased to see so many fans had taken up the opportunity to come and see some golf.
"I love it," he said. "You have got 15,000 guys out there that all want you to play well. Friends and family have been out there, faces I haven't seen for a while. Great support and hopefully we're going to get that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well."
Inside the ropes, Poulter picked up shots on the 10th and 12th but bogeys at the 14th and 15th had dropped him back to level par before a wonderful putt on the 17th got him back into red numbers much to the delight of the home crowd.
A stunning approach to the fifth left him with a tap-in birdie and he picked up a further stroke on the seventh after seeing his eagle putt agonisingly horseshoe round the cup.
"Obviously it was a little cool this morning, but I had a good putt on the tenth tee to start off," he said. "Nice to make three on your opening hole, get off to a nice start.
"Birdieing 12 was quite nice as well. Kind of settled into the round after a couple silly bogeys.
"Poor shot into 14, always going to be a tricky up-and-down from that front left bunker, especially when the pin is on the right half of that green.
"A bit of a chunky wedge, shall we say, into 15, that was a bit frustrating. It was a par five, I should be taking advantage of that. It seemed scoring range. I kind of threw, I would have said, two shots away on that hole.
"All in all, three under par is a decent start, especially with a couple of putts that felt like they were dropping and edged out."
