Søren Kjeldsen leads the Volvo Masters at Valderrama after a superb six under par opening round of 65.
The Dane made light work of difficult windy conditions in Spain as The European Tour season draws to a close with the top 60 players on The Order of Merit taking to the course.
Four of those - Robert Karlsson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jiménez - are all competing for the Harry Vardon trophy.
Kjeldsen’s round gives him a four shot clubhouse lead over England’s David Lynn and Anthony wall.
On a day when birdies were proving difficult to come by Kjeldsen made eight of them thanks to some tremendous putting and pinpoint accuracy from the tee.
“The breeze was strong and there's not that much space out there really,” he said.
“You have to control the ball well and seems like pretty much every shot I hit today came up sort of the way I saw it before hitting it. So you've got to take advantage of those days, and I did.
“There's a long way to go. My priority is to hit a good tee shot on the first tomorrow, and that's as far as it goes really. You never know with this game, especially on this course, but playing well last year and playing well last week, I felt good coming into today. But to do six under today, I couldn't have predicted that obviously.”
Lynn recovered from two over to eventually sign for a 69, the same as compatriot Wall who had three birdies and just a single bogey on his card.
On the course last week’s CASTELLÓ MASTERS Costa Azahar winner Sergio Garcia was going well, reaching four under after 11 holes.
In the race for The Order of Merit, Westwood - who needs a win and Karlsson to finish outside the top three - was best placed at one under after 11 holes.
Jiménez and Harrington were both three over par out on the course, with Karlsson a shot further back at four over.
