A stunning birdie-laden round of 63 has catapulted Matt Wallace to the top of the first round leaderboard at the Open de Portugal and put him in superb shape for the rest of the tournament.

The Moor Park Golf Club professional was in the groove from the outset at Morgado Golf Resort and went out in a four-under total of 32 this morning. But his round was to get even better on the back nine as he birdied six out of seven holes – including five in succession from 12 to 16 – to post a memorable ten-under first round total and lead by one shot from Germany's Sebastian Heisele at the time of writing.

Wallace told the European Tour website: "It was a fantastic round really.

"It wasn’t looking great at the start when the rain came in ten minutes before my tee time. Then it stopped just as we got on to the tee, so that was kind of a good omen.

"It was the old cliché. I just took one shot at a time and we had a really good day out there.

"Everything was working well to be honest. Everything clicked. I made two good par saves on the front nine to keep the momentum going.

"After that every hole was at least a birdie chance, so it was a really good day.

"It’s been a continuation of a good start to the season. I’ve enjoyed it, I love coming out here and playing and hopefully we can keep this going for the next three days."

The tournament is the first dual-ranking event between the European Tour and Challenge Tour for two years, and as well as a €500,000 total prize fund – the highest on the Challenge Tour this year – it also has the big additional incentive of European Tour exemption until the end of 2018 for the winner.

Following his historic six victories on the Alps Tour last year which secured his Challenge Tour card, the 27-year-old started the year in fine form by finishing in a tie for third at the season-opening Kenya Open to secure his best professional result to date.

The Pinner resident, who is part of Chubby Chandler's International Sports Management stable, has previously played at two European Tour events – the Nordea Masters and Lyoness Open last June – after securing tournament invites following his success on the European satellite tour.