Lucas Bjerregaard continued his recent good form with a bogey-free 65 to take a one-shot lead after day one of the BMW PGA Championship.
The big-hitting Dane arrived at Wentworth Club for the first Rolex Series event of the season off the back of consecutive top tens and maintained his momentum to get to seven under and lead the way from South African pair Dean Burmester and Darren Fichardt.
He has never before made the cut at Wentworth and his best Rolex Series result is a tie for 37th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player but he was on course to better both of those records in Surrey.
Rory McIlroy - the 2014 champion - was at five under alongside English trio Richard Bland, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Sam Horsfield, who delighted a bumper crowd of 20,915.
Portugal Masters champion Bjerregaard had made just two of seven cuts in 2018 before his recent renaissance and he was delighted to be at the right end of the leaderboard again.
"I've not had much success around this place but played lovely today," he said. "I hit it pretty well off the tee. I hit a couple of loose shots in the end but managed to get up and down a couple of times, all in all I didn't do much wrong.
"It's quite important to hit it straight and I felt like I did that. I put myself in a lot of good spots and left myself with a few short irons and took advantage of that.
"I'm just pleased that my form from the last few weeks seems to continue and hopefully I can keep doing some of the same stuff the rest of the week."
Fichardt and Burmester had set the target early on a day when overnight storms had softened up the course at Wentworth and showers fell throughout the day.
It looked for a long time that the leading duo would not be caught but Bjerregaard birdied the last to go with gains on the second, fourth, seventh, ninth, 12th and 16th.
Earlier, Bland had been the first man to set the target as he birdied his final two holes to go with gains on the fourth, eighth, 11th and 15th, and a single blemish on the sixth.
Fichardt soon joined him as he made birdies on the fourth, seventh, eighth, tenth and 12th, while pace-setter Fitzpatrick - who had made gains on the first, third, fourth, 11th and 12th - bounced back from a bogey on the 15th by picking the shot back up on the penultimate hole.
Burmester was level par stood on the 12th tee but went birdie-birdie before holing his second on the 15th from 169 yards for an eagle. A birdie on the 16th then handed him a share of the lead.
Fichardt edged ahead with a birdie on the 17th and when Burmester made it six shots gained in seven holes on the last, there was a pair of South Africans atop the leaderboard.
McIlroy bogeyed the third but hit back with birdies on the fourth and sixth and when he hit the pin on the eighth, he moved to two under before giving the shot straight back. He then birdied the tenth and 12th, hit a stunning tee-shot into the 14th, and when his approach to the 16th was equally good, he was on the charge.
A stroke of luck after hitting the trees on the last allowed the Northern Irishman to set up a two-foot putt for birdie but he agonisingly missed it.
Horsfield was one over at the turn but hat-tricks of birdies from the 11th and 16th catapulted him up the leaderboard.
Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat had held the lead but a seven-six finish dropped him to four under alongside Italian Nino Bertasio, Welshman Bradley Dredge, Dane Lasse Jensen, Finn Mikko Korhonen and England's Chris Paisley.
There was then a large group of players at three under including defending champion Alex Noren.
