KLM Open Round 1 Leaderboard: Ricardo Gouveia takes early lead

Portugal's Ricardo Gouveia hit the front in the first round of the DP World Tour's KLM Open with a stunning 7-under 64 at The International in the Netherlands. 

Gouveia, 33, got off to an absolute flyer on Thursday with seven birdies on his front nine having started on the 10th.

He moved to 8-under par with a birdie at the 3rd but would hand back his only shot of the day at his last hole on the par-4 9th. 

Play was halted midway through the first round due to the threat of lightning, and it seemed to disrupt the flow of Gouveia's back nine. 

Nevertheless, his round of 64 leaves him one shot clear of Scotland's Connor Syme, who also made eight birdies on his round. 

A logjam group of six players are then tucked in on 5-under par in a tie for third including Dan Brown, John Catlin, Max Kieffer, Joakim Lagergren, Pierre Pineau and Richie Ramsay. 

Angel Hidalgo and David Ravetto then round out the top 10 on 4-under par. 

Gouveia has never won a tournament  on the DP World Tour despite a number of close calls down the years.

That's a surprise to some given he is a serial winner on the lower-tier Challenge Tour where he was won seven times between 2014 and 2023. 

"It was one of those rounds where I started off really well and just kept the momentum going and holed a lot of putts," said Gouveia, who entered this week off the back of three straight missed cuts.

"I haven't holed that many putts in a long time but obviously hit it very close on the front nine, and then on the back nine I kept playing well but with the stop and restart it was a bit tricky. 

"It's always when you are playing well but I am really pleased with the round, I would say it's the best round of my life.

"I thought in every department I was really good today. I haven't been this consistent in a while, so it was good to have a round like this, to have great feelings onthe course in every aspect of my game."

Despite an indifferent run of form of late, which has sent him tumbling down the world rankings to a current 362nd, the Portuguese admits some recent hard work with his coach has finally paid reward. 

"I started off the season really well and in Belgium I felt like the game was good going into the week, and then I just made a few mistakes. 

"My coach was there on the sidelines and he noticed something which we worked on quite a bit over the weekend there to prepare for Austria. 

"The long game was much better in Austria, but the putting wasn't good, so I knew a good round like this was very close.

"I had great preparation this week and I was feeling good going  into the round, but in golf you never know so I stayed very patient and I barely made any mistakes today so that was key." 

Gouveia tees off in the afternoon wave in the second round at 2pm local time. 

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