Brendan McGovern, runner-up to Padráig Harrington after a play-off in last year's Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship, blasted a warning that he will again be a big player over the next week when the championship is staged at The European Club.
The Headford Club professional fired an amazing six-under-par 64 course record in the Carlow PGA pro-am to leave a five shot gap at the top of the leaderboard with John Dignam in second place on 69.
McGovern did all the work on the back nine after pencilling in nine straight pars to the turn for 35 shots out. He then turned on the powerplay with a hat-trick of birdies from the 10th hole, going 4-3-3.
At the 13th hole he settled for a par four but then shot down back-to-back birdie threes before par-par at 16 and 17 and a finishing flourish with his sixth birdie in nine holes at the long 18th.
It's McGovern's first outright win of the season but he did finish in a four-way tie for first place in the Shell EP Ireland PGA pro-am at Carne.
An all-Heritage Club combination of professional Eddie Doyle and amateurs Barry Larkin (17), Tony Fogarty (9) and Liam Connell (9) won the team prize with 90 points.