Marc Hammer carded an opening round eight under par 64 to lead by one after the first round of the Infortar Estonian Challenge.
The German made nine birdies in round one, with just one blemish, to sit atop the leaderboard, with England’s John Gough, Denmark’s Sebastien Friedrichsen and France's Pierre Pineau one shot back on seven under.
Hammer, ranked 67th in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, was pleased that he was able to take advantage of the calm weather conditions that lead to a low scoring opening day at the Estonian Golf and Country Club.
“It was nice,” he said. “It was pretty calm with the wind this morning, and the greens were running nice. The course is in awesome shape.
“My wedges were great. I hit a couple of wedges pretty close and then putting wasn’t too bad I would say. I holed a couple of short ones and also some from mid-range.”
Hammer got off to a fast start, finding three birdies in his first five holes before back-to-back gains on eight and nine saw him recover from a dropped shot on seven to turn in 32 strokes.
The 27-year-old then finished with four more birdies in his final six holes to equal his front nine score.
Hammer earned his way into this week by finishing in the top ten last week at the Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge. And after battling into the field at the Infortar Estonian Challenge field, the German is looking to maintain the same mentality as he seeks more starts on the 2026 Road to Mallorca.
“I would say I had a similar mentality this week to last,” he added. “I didn’t hit the ball well the last couple of days, it felt a little strange, so I’ve been working a little on the swing so I wasn’t really aware of what was coming up.
“I was trying to keep the same mentality to get into the round, then got off to a pretty good start.
“In the first round, if you put a good score on the board it’s nice but I’ve just got to keep fighting and keep playing the same. Strategy wise I tried to just do the same, stay aggressive and play my game.
“I’m going to hit the range and do a little bit of work on my swing, then head back to the hotel and take a nap.”
German Jannik de Bruyn, Jack Yule from England and France's Benjamin Hebert share fifth position on six under par.
Round two of the Infortar Estonian Challenge begins on Friday at 07:30am local time, with Hammer teeing off at 01:35pm alongside England’s Barclay Brown and Denmark’s John Axelsen.
