Marc Warren carded a bogey-free eight under par round of 63 to top the leaderboard after round two of the Open de Portugal.
The Scotsman made eight birdies on Friday to reach 14 under par for the tournament, moving one-stroke clear of first round leader Jannik de Bruyn and Japan’s Tatsunori Shogenji.
Warren was happy he could take advantage of the perfect scoring conditions presented to him in the morning wave.
“A good day for myself,” he said. “It was a great start this morning, conditions were perfect, so I was delighted to get out and take advantage of that.
“The conditions were so good that it’s important to get off to a good start. I made birdie at the first and missed a few chances after that, but my patience was really good and obviously a good reward in the end.
“You’ve got to let the birdies come to you and not force it too much. I felt like I did a really good job at that today.”
Starting on the back nine, Warren birdied the tenth to open his account at the earliest possible opportunity, before consecutive gains followed on the 15th and 16th holes to see him turn in 33 strokes.
The two-time HotelPlanner Tour winner then picked up five more birdies on his second nine to sign for a 63.
Warren said a recent driver change at last week’s English Trophy has led to a big improvement off the tee, for which the 45-year-old is reaping the rewards this week.
“I haven’t been that great off the tee over the last four or five weeks, but I got a new driver last week,” he added. “I drove it well in England and then carried that form into this week.
“It’s a treeline course this week so if you’re driving it well, you’re going to have a lot of wedges into the green. But even with wedges it’s important just to go for the middle of the greens and hope the putter is working.”
Earlier this year, Warren celebrated joining the DP World Tour’s ‘500 club’, making his 500th appearance on Golf’s Global Tour at the Austrian Alpine Open and becoming one of just 51 players to reach the landmark.
The Glasgow resident says returning once again to the Tour where he has won four times has been his main motivation this season.
“I’m trying to get back out there. I felt as if the main reason I lost my card a couple of years ago was through injury, so I feel as if I’ve still got a bit to offer, still got a little bit of game left in me.
“Like I said, it’s about that word again patience, it’s trying to let the results happen rather than trying to force them, and a massive goal is getting back out there on the DP World Tour.
“I’ll be hoping for more of the same tomorrow, 14 under for two rounds means your game is in pretty good shape. I’ll try and not overthink it or anything and have a pretty easy afternoon, and get ready to go again at the weekend.”
Tied two-strokes back at 12 under par are Spain’s Santiago Tarrio, Sweden’s Tobias Jensen Eden and Denmark’s Sebastian Friedrichsen.
Round three begins on Saturday at 8:05am local time, with Warren teeing off alongside de Bruyn and Shogenji at 12:06pm.
