Early starter Mitch Waite stormed to the top of a crowded Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open leaderboard after posting an opening 64 in just his fourth European Tour event.
The 25-year-old fired an eagle, seven birdies and two bogeys on day one to move to seven under par and sit a single shot ahead of David Drysdale, Jamie Donaldson and Joël Stalter, who each produced morning 65s.
Johannes Veerman was also on six under with two holes of his first round still to play.
Waite, who is here courtesy of a tournament invitation this week, made a bright start at Aphrodite Hills Resort on Thursday morning, carding birdies at the second, third, sixth and eighth to reach the turn in 32.
A brilliant eagle at the tenth saw Waite grab a share of the lead before a birdie on the next took him to the summit on his own.
Waite's first bogey of the day came along on the 13th but he bounced back straight away with a birdie from around eight feet to return to seven under.
The Englishman would drop another shot on the short 15th but he did not let that affect him, taking advantage of the course's next par three - the 17th - with a birdie putt from 12 feet.
Waite had the opportunity to extend his lead to two shots with a putt from a similar distance at the long 18th but he narrowly missed his birdie try to head into the clubhouse on seven under.
He was delighted with his first round performance, saying: "I feel very good, I played nicely today.
"I’ve just had a good attitude from the beginning of the week, I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain so I just need to get out there – it’s a scoreable track – hit some good shots and see what we get out of it.
"It’s probably been a slow professional career so far, expectation was high for myself and I put myself under pressure more than anybody else.
"So last year was a tough year and I started quite nicely at the beginning of this year on the Challenge Tour and obviously Covid hit and that slowed me down but I’m just fortunate to be here on an invite.
"It’s easy to say no expectations but you’ve got to still go out there and do it. You tell yourself don’t play with any pressure but at the end of the day, when the covers come on and you’ve not been in that position before, there is a bit of pressure there and I was really pleased with how I finished up in those last three holes.
"I played nicely and I’m going to do some work on the range and get ready for tomorrow, more of the same.
"It’s early days, first day, but I’ve got an early start tomorrow and there are so many good players out there now that the scoring’s going to be low so you’ve got to go out and do the same tomorrow."
Scotland's Drysdale, who is playing in his 508th European Tour event, also made an eagle on the tenth in his first round, as well as five birdies and a single bogey.
He was pleased with his birdie on the short seventh.
"I holed a nice putt on the seventh from 25 feet on the par three, which gives me the heebie-jeebies," said Drysdale.
"I sort of get a little bit of vertigo on the third tee and the seventh tee.
"It's weird. I call it ETS - elevated tee syndrome - where you feel like you can't follow through. You almost stay so far back on it, it's so high up.
"It's a strange feeling on a couple of the tee shots round there. But yeah, some good putting."
