Madeira Islands Open 2015: Leaderboard Scores and Highlights from Thursday

The first round of the long-awaited Madeira Islands Open at Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra in Portugal was completed Thursday, with Spain's Antonio Hortal atop the leaderboard.

Hortal fired a nine-under round of 63, which leaves him one stroke ahead of fellow Spaniard Nacho Elvira and two in front of both Ryan Fox of New Zealand and France's Sebastien Gros. Here is a look at the leaderboard through one round of play, with full results available at EuropeanTour.com:

Position	Golfer	To Par	Round 1
1	Antonio Hortal	-9	63
2	Nacho Elvira	-8	64
T3	Ryan Fox	-7	65
T3	Sebastien Gros	-7	65
T5	Scott Henry	-6	66
T5	Stuart Manley	-6	66
T5	Pedro Oriol	-6	66
T5	Ricardo Santos	-6	66
T5	Chris Paisley	-6	66
T5	Andreas Harto	-6	66
T5	Marcel Schneider	-6	66
T5	Roope Kakko	-6	66

The Madeira Islands Open was originally scheduled for March, but after three days of driving rain, it was postponed. The tournament was rescheduled for Thursday, and everything went off without a hitch, as the weather was excellent.

With that said, the event wasn't without its distractions, as evidenced by this Vine created by the Challenge Tour's official Twitter account:

Hortal took advantage of the conditions and blocked out the outside forces best by rushing out to the lead and setting himself up nicely for the remainder of the tourney.

He has no shortage of talented players on his heels, though, including Elvira. While Elvira likely thought he would enter the second round in first place, as he held the clubhouse lead, a birdie on the 17th hole by Hortal put him just off the pace.

Portugal's Ricardo Gouveia entered the tournament as the odds-on favorite. Not only is he the No. 1 player on the European Tour's Challenge Tour, but he also has home-soil advantage, although that can work against golfers at times.

Although Gouveia has work to do over the next three rounds, he got off to a strong start by shooting a four-under 68 thanks to his sweet swing, as seen in this video courtesy of the Challenge Tour on Twitter:

Gouveia entered the tournament with plenty of confidence, having already secured his European Tour card, but that certainly didn't lessen his expectations, according to SportingLife.com:

"

The goal this week is of course to win. My game is in good shape, I just have to play smart and keep the same mindset as I've been doing for the past few months. It's nice coming home to Portugal having played so well recently, I feel the respect from my fellow players. It's great, but I don't want to think about the past, I want to keep it going and work as hard as I can and prepare as well as I can for each week.

"

England's Chris Hanson, who is among the most talented players on the tour, seemed well on his way to finishing the first round near the top of the leaderboard until disaster struck on the 14th with a quadruple-bogey eight.

Hanson is now tied for 39th at three under, but he isn't particularly devastated considering what he had to overcome:

While Hanson likely needs to string together three very good rounds, there are plenty of players within striking distance. Nineteen golfers are four shots or fewer off the pace, which means there will be a ton of pressure on Hortal to keep it up after an excellent opening round.

There is a long way to go in Portugal, and with so many golfers jockeying for position in an attempt to gain their full-time European Tour cards, one can only assume the next few rounds will be as competitive as they come on the Challenge Tour.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.