Victor Dubuisson is riding the feelgood factor from his recent victory at the Turkish Airlines Open as he goes for a second win of The Final Series at the BMW Masters.
The Frenchman had not been enjoying the best of seasons by his high standards but three birdies in his final four holes at The Montgomerie Maxx Royal 11 days ago handed him a second win in Turkey and a place in the top ten on The Race to Dubai.
He followed that up with an opening 65 at Lake Malaren Golf Club to sit just a shot behind first round leader Sergio Garcia and revealed he has not given up on using that momentum to propel him to Race to Dubai glory.
"It's been a long time since I shot a low score to start a tournament," he said. "Usually I play so-so the first two rounds and I do well on the weekend where I make some good results. But to start with seven under, it feels great for confidence for the rest of the tournament.
"It's carrying on what I did in Turkey. I feel so great and I feel so good on the greens. You know, when I read the line good, I feel like the putt can only go in the hole you don't have this feeling much time during the year. So it feels great.
"With this format of extra points for The Final Series, if you make some good results, if you make to the top three or a good win, you can jump to the top of The Race to Dubai.
"So I just want to stay focused until the end of Dubai."
Dubuisson's playing partner Byeong-hun An also shot a 65 on a day when rain fell consistently in Shanghai.
The layout at Lake Malaren is a testing 7594 yards and Korean BMW PGA Championship winner An admitted that, despite the low scoring, the opening round was a real test.
"It was tough," he said. "I think, for me and the playing partners the ball didn't fly very far, and the greens are quite nice I think to play, pretty wet. Some spike marks but they rolled pretty nicely.
"The round is just really good. I think I hit 17 or 18 greens today, so quite happy with that."
Ross Fisher was a shot behind An and Dubuisson as he looked for a second consecutive productive week in Shanghai.
The 34 year old finished in a tie for third last week at the World Golf Championships - HSBC Champions and lost out in a play-off here last year as Marcel Siem claimed victory with a spectacular chip-in.
And while the Englishman echoed An's sentiments over the difficulty of the challenge this week, he still believes low scores are out there if the weather is calm.
"It's very similar to last week," he said. "It's a star-studded field, a lot of quality players. So I'd imagine if we get some reasonable weather, the scoring is going to be pretty good.
"You see Sergio is eight under at the moment, so you would guess it's going to be definitely high teens, maybe close to 20, obviously weather dependent."
