McIlroy four off the lead in Switzerland
RORY McIlroy is four shots off the lead after a round of 67 on day one of the Omega European Masters.
McIlroy shares that mark with 15 others following an eventful opening day.
Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Matthias Schwab, both of who are targeting a first European Tour victory, set the pace with opening rounds of 63 at Crans Montana.
Schwab had set the target in the morning with a bogey-free effort before Lorenzo-Vera came home in 29 to join him at seven under par.
He told the European Tour website: ‘I’m very happy because I just had five weeks off. It was a stressful five weeks with a wedding and moving plus two kids. I managed to bring the head together pretty well today.’
Lorenzo-Vera has already had two second-place finishes this season and has spoken of how his work with a psychologist has helped him get closer to that elusive first victory.
He continued: ‘The best thing to do (with so much going on) is to have a very, very good psychologist, that you call often. I’m not kidding, that’s really what I do.
‘Try to clean the head as much as possible outside the tournaments and come here fresh and ready to play golf.’
The 34-year-old birdied the second but double bogeyed the fourth after an unfortunate bounce before hitting back with birdies on the seventh, ninth and 10th.
A gain on the 13th was then followed by a long putt for eagle on the par 14th, a birdie on the second of the back-to-back par fives and another gain after a slippery putt on the 16th.
Earlier, Austria’s Schwab birdied the fourth – via a bunker shot – fifth, seventh and eighth, and a chip helped set up a birdie on the par-five ninth as he turned in 30.
Another gain on the 13th put him two clear and a two-putt birdie on the 15th moved him to seven under.