Danny Willett was happy to maintain his momentum after firing a one under par 71 in the first round of the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The Englishman - by his own admission - has not been in the best form of late but closing rounds of 67-69 at last week's Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player provided a confidence boost as he looks to overhaul Henrik Stenson and win his first Race to Dubai.
The Masters Tournament winner knows that a victory this week will get the job done and he showed he was capable of that feat on Thursday with some wonderfully dialled-in iron play, highlighted by a brilliant approach to the fifth.
Two more birdies would follow in the next three holes but three dropped shots also contributed to Willett sitting five shots behind first-round leader Lee Westwood, although he was one ahead of Stenson.
A fourth-place finish could be enough to hand the 29 year old the season-long glory but with 54 holes left to play, he preferred to focus on an encouraging opening round.
"I played really well," he said. "Missed a lot of good chances with a very frustrating last five, six holes. We could have pushed ourselves up there and shot something in the 60s but there are some good signs, positive signs. We hit the ball well and rolled it well.
"The first day it's always nice to get off to a flyer but if you keep nosing on and shooting better each day you move up the leaderboard and, come Sunday, you're never going to be too far off.
"Yes, I have to beat Henrik but I have to beat everybody else."
Stenson registered one bogey and one birdie around a Jumeirah Golf Estates layout where he has won twice before and admitted his round was "average".
We could have pushed ourselves up there and shot something in the 60s - Danny Willett
"It wasn't my best day. I played very average," he said. "I had a lot of inbetween numbers out there and I'd say the good putts I hit didn't go in and the bad ones certainly didn't.
"Not much happening out there, one bogey, one birdie. I think it's been a while since I played a round with only one birdie. I've just got to rest up and try and make a few more tomorrow.
"I'm just trying to play a good tournament and obviously I'm ahead, the other guys have got to play better than I do. But still, I want to finish high up there because that's going to make it harder for them.
"So no one made a big move today but it's still a long way to go. It's not a sprint. I've got plenty of time to make up some ground and I'm going to try harder tomorrow."
