Miguel Angel Jiménez grabbed a share of the lead at Wentworth Club as he continued his bid for a successful defence of the BMW PGA Championship.
After a superb recovery with a fairway wood from the left hand rough on the opening hole Jiménez saved a par four there and then, like playing partners Angel Cabrera and Jose Maria Olazábal, birdied the short second.
It put the 45 year old from Malaga five under par and alongside English pair David Horsey and Anthony Wall.
They were late starters, but Jiménez's fellow countryman Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, the other player to go round the West Course in 67 in the first round, resumed with a double bogey six.
In the 54 year history of what is now The European Tour's flagship event only Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie have retained the trophy, Montgomerie managing three wins in a row from 1998-2000.
The Masters Tournament Champion Cabrera improved to one over par with his two - he was on the same mark as American star John Daly - and Olazábal improved his hopes of surviving the cut by moving to two over.
Jiménez bogeyed the difficult third, but the long fourth was an opportunity to get the shot back and he did to rejoin Horsey and Wall out in front.
Fernandez-Castaño followed his opening double with a bogey and at two under was not even in the leading 20 anymore.
Cabrera copied Lee Westwood by running up a six at the third before grabbing a birdie on the next, while Daly's bogey at the sixth meant he was also two over and right on the expected mark for the halfway cut.
