A brilliant round of 67 has left the Yarrawonga Golf Club trainee professional a shot clear at the top of the National Futures Championship leaderboard.

Droop is in front of Ethan Andrews and Robert Hogan – who are tied for second – with Daniel Bringolf another shot further behind.

There was some low scores produced during Tuesday’s opening day of competition, with 13 players breaking par.

One of those was Ballarat’s Darren Bowman. He shot a one-under total of 71 to be in a tie for 10^th place.

Droop was pleased with his start to the tournament.

“It was good to get out there (in the) morning pretty early and make the most of the good conditions out there,” he said.

“Ballarat is a pretty windy place normally, but it was pretty nice to us (in the) morning.”

Droop got his round going with a patch of impressive golf on the front nine.

“On five, six, seven, eight and nine I made five threes in a row,” he said.

“I started off on the fifth with a birdie, which is a long par four and tight-driving hole, and then followed it up with the par on a really long par three.

“And then to eagle the next, it kind of got the round rolling pretty nicely.”

Droop praised the condition of the course at the Ballarat Golf Club.

“The greens have got a little bit quicker since (Monday) which was nice.  In the pro-am (on Monday) I was leaving all of my putts a little bit short,” he said.

Droop is set to tee off for his second round at 8.10am on Wednesday morning.

The cut will take place after Wednesday’s golf, before rounds three and four on Thursday and Friday.

More than 70 trainee golf professionals are part of the tournament, which has made its home in Ballarat in recent years.

The $60,000 prize purse makes the event the richest trainee tournament in the world.