Staff WriterDavid Horsey leads the Swiss Challenge by one stroke after carding a flawless eight-under-par round of 63 on day one at Golf Sempach.
The Englishman made the most of perfect scoring conditions to card eight birdies without a blemish to lead by one from Austrian Maximilian Steinlechner who sits in solo second.
Horsey, starting on the ninth, parred his opening hole before producing a run of six birdies in a nine-hole stretch from the tenth.
The 40-year-old added two more gains on the third and fifth holes to set the pace, and was delighted with how he took advantage of the benign conditions in Lucerne.
“I’m very pleased,” he said. “I know today is a great score, but hopefully I can build on that and have a good week.
“It’s playing very soft, there wasn’t much wind, but I still hit a lot of good shots. I started on the ninth, so on my front nine, I hit a lot of good shots close, so gave myself a lot of chances.
“You’ve still got to be in the fairway here. The rough is getting thicker. We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days and the rough is growing fast, but it is playing soft, so it is like throwing darts. I’ve just got to throw a few more.”
Horsey is a four-time winner on the DP World Tour having last tasted success in the 2015 Made in Denmark.
The Englishman is looking to return to golf’s Global Tour following a challenging few years, and says a change to his swing after an encouraging start to 2025, has him moving in the right direction.
“I found something swing-wise over the weekend,” he added. “I missed the cut last week, but felt I played well despite shooting three over on the Friday. Then I just found something really important for my future more than anything.
“The game has been hard for a long time, but I’ve managed to piece rounds together and play a hole well here and there, but never really felt like I was playing well enough to compete, even if I was in contention.
“Hopefully I can now fine-tune what I’ve picked up on and kick on for the rest of the year.”
Six players share third place on six under par, including Scotland’s Ryan Lumsden, American Matt Oshrine, German Michael Hirmer, Spaniard Santiago Tarrio, Tobias Jonsson from Sweden, and England’s George Mason.
Round two of the Swiss Challenge gets underway tomorrow at 7:25 am local time, with Horsey teeing off alongside Oshrine and Swiss Jordan Prutthaweewat at 1:40 pm.
