Rory McIlroy got off to a flying start and carded a superb five-under 65 to move into contention for the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club.
After finishing with three birdies to open with a hard-fought 68, the world number two came flying out of the gates in windless morning conditions.
He made five birdies in his first eight holes before picking up another shot at the fifth on his back nine.
But while the Masters champion was disappointed to three-putt the eighth from 60 feet, missing a three footer for par, he was happy to finish his day just four shots behind early leader Chris Gotterup on seven under and planned to continue with his aggressive approach from the tee over the weekend.
“I got off to a bit of a flyer,” said McIlroy, who birdied the 10th and 12th before reeling off a hat-trick of birdies from the 14th to get to five under for his round.
“The conditions were so benign this morning, hardly any wind. And then the wind started to pick up a little bit on the on the back nine for us.”
He had to scramble for pars early on his back nine, making putts of 14 feet and the first and five feet at the second before chipping close to set up his sixth birdie of the day at the 347-yard 15th.
A shot went with that three-putt at the eighth but after finding six fairways compared to just four in round one, he was happy with his position despite failing to push on after the turn.
“Certainly a bit of momentum coming off the finish last night,” he said. “I hit two good shots into the 10th hole, which was our first and sort of got going from there.
“I mean, the conditions this morning, I felt like if we didn’t play the first nine in three or four-under you’re losing strokes to the field.
“It was nice to play in those conditions. A little bit of breeze that got up coming in, enough to make you think a little bit.”
The Holywood star was not afraid to use his driver and insisted he would continue to play aggressively over the weekend.
“The rough isn’t too bad,” he said. “And I feel like the more aggressive you can be, and honestly being aggressive off the tee on links golf courses and taking the bunkers out of play the if the rough isn’t too bad has always been a pretty good strategy for me.
“So sticking with that for the week. Sometimes it gets you in trouble but most of the time it works out pretty well.”
He was just four strokes behind Gotterup (25), who went out in six-under 29 and got to nine-under through 14 holes to threaten the magical 59 mark before finishing with four pars for a brilliant 61.
The American, whose lone PGA Tour win came in last year’s Myrtle Beach Classic, said shooting 59 was not at the forefront of his mind.
“Not really,” he said. “I made the putt on 14 and I was like, all right, I’ve got 16 and obviously 17 and 18 are pretty tough.
“So I really wanted to get 16 (the par-five). Obviously it is what it is. I’m not going to complain too much when I make my birdies on a course that isn’t always typically easy.
“So I’ll take what I can get and hopefully maybe there’s a couple more out there for me this weekend.”
He led by two strokes on 11-under-par from England’s Harry Hall, who shot 64, and by three from Matt Fitzpatrick (63) and Marco Penge (67).
McIlroy was tied for fifth, a shot further back alongside Matti Schmid, Nick Taylor and Keith Mitchell.