Northern Ireland teenager Rory McIlroy leads the Dubai Desert Classic following his eight under par 64 to open up a one stroke lead after the first round was completed.
Fog and bad light meant 60 players failed to complete their opening rounds on the first day and they were made to wait again as fog again delayed the start of play on day two.
The talented 19 year old carded nine birdies to open up a one shot lead over Sweden's Robert Karlsson only a day after new Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie named him as a potential candidate for Celtic Manor next year.
McIlroy's only blemish came on his fourth hole of the day when he drove into a bush but he made amends as he holed from 15 feet on the last for a birdie to ensure the outright lead after calmly striking his approach into the heart of the green.
"It was actually nice to be out late because I wanted to do a little work on my putting before I went out. I was able to do that and holed a few nice ones," said McIlroy.
"The conditions were perfect, the greens were soft, the fairways were soft. It was ideal scoring conditions."
McIlroy has yet to win a senior title after play-off defeats at the 2008 Omega European Masters and 2009 UBS Hong Kong Open.
He has recorded top five finishes in his last five events - and although he finished way down last week in Qatar, McIlroy was seven under over the final three days.
“I want to try and get into contention every time I go out and play,” he said.
“I’ve been able to do that quite a lot the last few weeks - but I hope with a good start this week, I’ll be able to do it.
“I’m shooting a few low numbers, and Abu Dhabi gave me a nice boost in the first week of the year.
“I struggled last week with my distance control. But I worked a little bit on it this week and I played really nicely.
“I was really pleased with my distance control. I know when I am playing well, because I usually end up pin high - which I wasn’t able to do last week.”
Last year’s European Order of Merit winner Karlsson, a Ryder Cup winner in 2006, carded a bogey free seven under 65 to sit in the clubhouse a shot clear of early pacesetter Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño.
Karlsson was also happy to take advantage of the conditions which be believes will set a winning total of 20 under par come Sunday - a similar level to the recent tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha.
"It was a solid game. There wasn't anything spectacular, but I got my chances, I took most of them and I still missed a couple of chances, but all in all very solid," he said.
"It was a great day for scoring with the greens fairly soft and not much wind.
"I think I had a quick look at 27 putts and I hit ten fairways, I missed a couple of greens but when I missed them I got up and down.
"It's easier this year because the greens are soft so the chipping and pitching is quite a bit easier than normal."
Fernandez-Castaño continued the form which saw the Quinn Insurance British Masters winner finish a strong seventh in Qatar last week.
He stormed out of the blocks with five birdies over his opening nine holes but despite carding a further three birdies was only able to pick up a single stroke on his way home.
"I'm quite happy with the result, but I have to say I didn't really hit the ball well as I was doing but I managed to score and that's the main thing around here, you have to score," he said.
"It's not about how you hit the ball, but how many you do at the end of the day. That's what I did and I am very happy with that."
Frenchman Grégory Havret, England’s Paul Waring and Swedish duo Alexander Noren and Michael Jonzon sit three back after opening with first round 67s.