Canon Claycomb fired a nine under par round of 63 to take a one-stroke lead on a low-scoring opening day at the Challenge de Catalunya.
The American strung together an impressive first round in Girona, finishing the day with eight birdies, an eagle and a solitary bogey to reach top of the leaderboard. Despite a blemish on the par four first, Claycomb bounced back with gains on the fourth, sixth and eighth to go out in 34 strokes, before adding five birdies and an eagle after the turn for a flawless back nine of 29.
“I feel great, my back nine was fantastic,” he said. “I got off to a great start on the back; I eagled 10 and birdied 11 and 12 and shot 29 so I’ll just try to keep the momentum going into tomorrow.
“For the first time in a long time, it felt easy. So hopefully that continues.
“You know, it's actually funny that I started with a bogey, because one of my best friends from high school would always say that all great rounds start with a bogey.
"I hit a great tee shot on one, hit the green and then three putted, so it wasn't like a terrible bogey, I just three putted from 40 feet.”
Claycomb has had a positive start to his maiden season on the HotelPlanner Tour, including a tied tenth place finish at the CIRCA Cape Town Open, and despite missing the cut at last week’s Italian Challenge Open, he feels positive about his game.
“I felt pretty good coming into this week, I felt like I played decent in Italy last week. It was my first time seeing the golf course for a while and I didn't have a caddie last week, so having Jack on the bag today helped me. He went through numbers well today and I think that might've been a big difference maker already for me this week.”
Englishman Frank Kennedy holds solo second, just one shot behind Claycomb on eight under par, whilst Italy’s Lorenzo Scalise and Switzerland’s Ronan Kleu share third on seven under par.
The second round of the Challenge de Catalunya gets under way on Friday morning at 8am local time, with Claycomb teeing off alongside fellow American Collin Adams and Dutchman Wouter de Vries at 2:55pm.
