Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts hit birdies on 8 straight holes on his way to an opening-round 9-under-63 at the Italian Open.
The 32-year-old holds a 2-stroke lead heading into the 2nd round on Friday.
His streak of 8 birdies in-a-row is only the 11th time a player has done that on the European Tour.
"Well, you don't really think about anything, you know you're playing quite well, you know you're taking the chances that you give yourself. It all felt pretty easy because, I mean, except for a long putt I holed on the second, which was my eleven, all the rest was very holeable and I was hitting the right shots and I kept it, you know, very tidy around the hole which kind of made sense to me that I would have so many birdies in a row."
Colsaerts is looking for his first win since the World Match Play Championship in 2012.
Former Italian Open champion Francesco Molinari, India's Shiv Kapur and Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg are tied for second at minus-7.
