Australian amateur Aaron Pike birdied his last four holes to equal the Huntingdale course record of 8-under 64 and take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Australian Masters on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Pike, who was a promising cricketer before deciding to take up golf seriously when he was 16, opened his round with an eagle and finished one stroke ahead of Nick Dougherty and Peter Wilson, who each had 65s.
Pike's 64 matched the course record set by Nick O'Hern in the opening round of last year's Masters.
"If you can shoot 64 in the first round, realistically you can do it everyday," said Pike. "My goal coming into this was that I wanted to shoot double figures under-par ... and that's not going to change."
Defending champion Robert Allenby was five strokes back after shooting a 69.
The 24-year-old Dougherty was on a hot streak early in the year and looked likely to make his Ryder Cup debut in September.
But a number of personal problems, including the death of his grandfather and his mother being diagnosed with cancer, resulted in a slump and he did not qualify for the European team at The K Club in Ireland.
Dougherty had nine birdies and two bogeys Thursday.
"It's been a really tough year ... I've played poorly now for five months," Dougherty said.
"From being a guy who should be playing in the Ryder Cup team and is finishing in the top 10 every time he teed it up, I couldn't make a cut. So I'm very relieved to have put a round together quite that good."
"I had a lot going on off the course with my family, my mom got really sick (with cancer), my granddad died and I had some relationship problems," he added.
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