Kristian Hjort Bressum holds a one-stroke lead after round one of the English Trophy at The Caversham.
The Dane, among the morning groups in Reading, made the most of calm conditions, as he made eight birdies on his way to carding a bogey-free eight under par 64 to take the solo lead.
“All in all, I just hit a lot of good drives and hit some good approach shots,” he said. “The shortest putt I missed was a 20-footer, I made everything inside 20 feet.
“That's probably the main reason I played well. I birdied all the par fives today, so I took advantage of them and there were a lot of gettable pins on some of the short par fours.
“I hit my wedges within 20 feet and made them. It was good.”
After a difficult start to the season, The Dane has picked up form of late, making the cut in four of his last six starts on the Road to Mallorca, after making the cut just once in his 11 starts before the Irish Challenge last month.
“I had a really rough start,” he added. “I played really bad, did my best obviously, but it wasn't very good. And then the last six or seven tournaments, I think I've played really well.
“I've been close to the lead a lot of times and had a lot of good rounds, a couple of bad rounds but I think my game is definitely trending.
“It's been an awesome year.”
The 25-year-old is embarking on his first season on the HotelPlanner Tour after qualifying for the Final Stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School at the end of 2025. Despite not quite hitting the hights he would have liked so far this season, Bressum is looking forwards to what a positive week could do to his season at such a crucial stage.
“It's important to play well and I think the way I play well is do what I've been doing the whole year and sticking to my plan. Today I did, and it worked.
“We have three regular season tournaments left, and I'm not sure if I can get into the ones after that.
“I'm going to keep trying to do my best and see if I can play well for four rounds, maybe, instead of just playing well for two rounds.”
John Murphy holds solo second on seven under par, with compatriot Gary Hurley, Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist and Australian Sam Jones in a share of third place, one-stroke ahead of 12 players on five under par.
The second round of the English Trophy gets underway at 7:15am local time on Friday morning, with Bressum teeing off alongside English duo Ryan Brooks and Bailey Gill at 12:40pm.
