Jean Hugo, Paul Lawrie, and Scott Drummond led the inaugural Portugal Legends Championship at Pinheirinho on Friday after a day of low-scoring and birdie records in Comporta, south of Lisbon.

All three players sat at six-under-par after rounds of 66, one clear of Johan Edfors and Mark Brown, and two ahead of a group at four-under that includes the previous winner on the Staysure Legends Tour, Craig Farrelly.

Hugo claimed a maiden win on the tour at the Reignwood Legends Championship in Beijing last month. The South African made seven birdies in his round and was full of praise for the stunning Pinheirinho layout.

“It’s a great experience, the layout is awesome,” said Hugo. “There are some tricky holes down the back nine, and I think by Sunday it will be a vital stretch. It’s a real pleasure to play. You have to manage your way around and place the ball on the greens to have some chances, which I did reasonably well today. You have to expect that sometimes it’s going to be tough to get it close, but for now it was a good round.”

For Drummond – who famously claimed the DP World Tour’s flagship PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2004 – there was even more to savour after a remarkable burst of nine consecutive birdies, equalling a world record feat that has been achieved only a handful of times in professional golf.

One of the later starters, 1999 Open champion  Lawrie, then made it a three-way tie at the top, holing a testing par putt on the difficult 18th to stay at six-under.